Mumbai Cooper hospital resident doctors threaten 'Bheek maango andolan' over delayed stipends

Mumbai: Raising their concerns about recurring delays in monthly stipend disbursements, resident doctors at Mumbai's Dr RN Cooper Hospital have warned they will launch a protest called 'bheekh maango andolan'.

The resident doctors have argued that irregular payments are affecting their financial planning, loan repayments, and other daily expenses. Currently, the resident doctors in Mumbai receive an Rs 90,000 monthly stipend 

Explaining the situation, the President of the Cooper Unit of the Maharashtra Association of Resident Doctors (MARD), Mayur Choudhary, told Hindustan Times, "We had to raise our voices and threaten a protest before the stipends were credited to us post-Diwali."

Choudhary said that their concerns are not only limited to last month's stipend, as their payments always get delayed. "When the entire hospital is run by the resident doctors, how is it that our stipends are always delayed. The only other people in our hospitals who do not get their payments on time are the contract housekeeping workers of the hospital, who have not been paid for over two months," he added.

The resident doctors have argued that it was "unfair" treatment to them, as all the senior staff members and even academic professors receive timely salaries on the first day of every month.

Also Read: Cooper Hospital DNB medicos express disappointment over delayed stipend hike

According to the HT report, the resident doctors were told that the reason their stipends were delayed was that the clerical staff had been diverted to duty on the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) work.

"If there is any administrative issue, then how come it tends to affect only us and not the other category of staffers. All other admin and teaching staff receive salaries on 1st of every month but the 225 odd resident docs who run the entire hospital, always receive it randomly anywhere between 10th or 15th of the month," said Chaudhary.

Meanwhile, the doctors from BMC's MARD also pointed out that the stipend payments at Cooper Hospital were often delayed and the situation was similar, or just slightly better at other BMC medical colleges

Commenting on the matter, president of the BMC’s MARD Rutuja Raut said, "Stipends tend to be reasonably on time at Nair and Sion Hospital, while they tend to be very delayed at Cooper. Many of us have EMIs and other expenses to handle and regularity would help."

She further added that they had also raised the issue of delayed stipends before Shailesh Mohite, director of BMC’s medical education and major hospitals, and they had demanded that their stipend payments be made in the first week of every month so that the resident doctors can plan their finances in a better way.

The representatives of MARD have also raised the issue with various officials and plan to take up the matter with the municipal commissioner after Diwali.

Also Read: Cooper Hospital blood bank operations suspended for 2 days over regulatory lapses