Promised Rs 1.21 Lakh state govt incentive denied, COVID warriors protest expressing dissatisfaction
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Mumbai: The postgraduate final-year medical students who served COVID duties during the first and second waves of the pandemic have expressed dissatisfaction with the state's decision to exclude them from the Rs 1.21 lakh special incentive announced last year for resident doctors serving Covid-19 duty. The doctors have written to state minister Aaditya Thackeray, seeking his intervention into the matter.
The medicos from the 2018-19 batch who are currently serving the bond duty claimed that they served COVID duties under constant risk of infection and they have every right to claim the incentive as anyone else. The President of Maharashtra Association of Bonded Senior Resident Doctors, Dr. Deepak Mundhe stated that they were supposed to complete their final year by May. However, due to delay in NEET counselling, the government decided to extend their duties till August-September.
Talking to Medical Dialogues, Dr. Deepak stated, " We requested the government to consider our extra period as a part of our senior residency. When the Covid-19 pandemic struck in 2020, resident doctors in understaffed government and civic hospitals were tasked with caring for sufferers. Many of the resident doctors caught Covid-19 while on duty. However, as our academic year ended in May-June 2021, we are no longer considered "active" resident doctors and are no longer eligible for the special incentive of Rs 1.21 lakh announced by the state government in October 2021 for each resident doctor engaging in Covid-19 treatment."
The doctor also informed that the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) recently requested approval to give incentives to resident doctors in the first, second, and final year of their postgraduate degree. Senior resident doctors, on the other hand, were surprised because medical students had not even taken admission in the first year of PG due to a delay in NEET-PG counselling. However, they were being granted the incentive but the PG doctors who actually served during COVID are ignored.
" An MBBS doctor gets more than us during bond service but we only get Rs. 35000. We were supposed to get stipend and experience as senior residents during the extra months we served but none of the promises were fulfilled", he added. The doctor stated that the PG medicos, now senior residents even did not take their paid leaves and served COVID duties round the clock.
Dr. Sachin Pattiwar, a member of MARD stated, " When we served COVID duties in 2020, we demanded that our fees for the one year should be waived. However, DME assured and even the minister tweeted that they would not waive the fee but granted us special incentives for COVID incentives instead. It is really unfortunate that doctors who have served the state in need have been excluded, and funds have been approved for doctors who haven't even taken admission. "
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