Mumbai: Nair Hospital Resident Doctors raise voice against stipend disparity

Mumbai: The frontline warriors who served during the COVID-19 pandemic have raised their voices pointing out the injustice by informing the BYL Nair Hospital Director about the stipend due for the last 6 months. 

Bringing to light the issue of unequal payment among the resident doctors of the Nair hospital, The Maharashtra Association of Resident Doctors (MARD) have written to the hospital director after several failed attempts to solve the matter through a meeting.

The matter came into the focus of MARD after other civic-run hospitals were providing stipends to the doctors. MARD said that hospitals like BMC, and KEM were providing stipends to the doctors.

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The stipend system started during the COVID-19 period from May 2020 and an amount of Rs 10,000 was given to doctors each month who played a vital role during the pandemic period.

Although the stipend was given to the resident doctors of Nair hospital for a few months, soon it was discontinued from January 2022. The doctors thought that the incentive was fully stopped at all the other hospitals as well.

Demanding equal pay among all the resident doctors of the hospital, MARD also wrote to the dean of the Nair hospital after meeting twice with the dean and the director of major civic hospitals which resulted in no action.

Dr Chetankumar Adrat, MARD representative at Nair Hospital told HT, "It has been more than six months since we have not received the incentive. We initially assumed that with COVID-19 cases dipping, the BMC had decided to stop the stipend. It was recently brought to our notice that resident doctors from KEM and Sion hospitals are still getting the stipend."

Questioning the motive behind the discontinuation of the incentives, Dr Adrat said "During the pandemic, Nair Hospital was a dedicated COVID-19 facility. We still have a ward and are treating COVID-19 patients. We have a COVID-19 OPD too. Our COVID-19 work is more than the other hospitals and we work hard for the well-being of the patients. Therefore, we wonder why this discrimination between resident doctors of other hospitals and us. All we are demanding is equal pay."

Responding to the issue, Dr Neelam Andrade, Director of major civic hospitals, said "We are investigating the matter. We will see to it that there is uniformity for all the resident doctors. There is not much COVID-19 work at present. Necessary steps will be taken."

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