Doctors Flag Food Quality Issues at RNT Medical College, Call for Immediate Action
Telangana Government Medical Colleges
Udaipur: The resident doctors at RNT Medical College, Udaipur have alleged that they are being served below-average quality food in the boys' hostel, leading to health complications in 4-5 junior doctors.
It has been alleged that even though the residents have been raising the issue before the medical college authorities for a long time, no action has been taken by the administration in this regard.
Recently, raising the issue, the Rajasthan Chapter of the United Doctors' Front (UDF) wrote to the Medical College Principal requesting to intervene and ensure that the resident doctors have access to proper food and drinking water.
In the letter addressed to the Principal, the association highlighted that for a long time, the resident doctors have been facing irregularities in the quality and operation of the mess in the New Boys Hostel of your medical college.
As per the association, the resident doctors have informed that the mess is not being operated regularly, due to which the resident doctors are unable to get food on time. Often the mess remains closed without any prior notice and because of this, the doctors have to depend on outside food, which is harmful to their health.
Apart from this, the association also highlighted in the letter that the quality and hygiene of the food served in the mess is also a matter of great concern. "The taste, nutrition and hygiene of the food is not satisfactory, due to which the doctors working in the college are constantly facing health problems. Therefore, it is necessary to improve the quality of food and make it clean and nutritious," the association mentioned in the letter.
"Resident doctors who do duty for 48 hours each are engaged in the service of humanity. It is a very painful issue that the administration is not providing them with nutritious food. Therefore, you are requested to take necessary action in this matter as soon as possible so that the mess can be run regularly and the doctors can get clean, nutritious and high quality food and the doctors can do their work without any stress," the letter added.
Recently, the resident doctors at the medical college had written to the Chief Warden of New Junior Boys' Hostel to highlight these issues. "As collectively as residents of New Junior Boys Hostel, we beg to say that we collectively raise concern regarding poor quality of food in mess and irregularities regarding timings and to change the mess owner due to continuous mismanagement," they wrote in the letter.
They claimed that many residents have experienced health issues after having meals and alleged that even after giving warning to the mess owner, the quality of food along with the hygiene of the mess has remained unchanged.
Commenting on the matter, Dr. Bharat Pareek, the President of UDF Rajasthan informed Medical Dialogues that around 140-150 resident doctors stay at the hostel of RNT Medical College, Udaipur.
"The quality of food being given to the resident doctors is below average and due to this, the resident doctors are facing problems for a long time. They have written to the Principal many a time urging the authorities to take action. However, no action is being taken by the administration," he said.
Dr. Pareek claimed that the residents do not even have access to proper drinking water and mostly they rely on food delivery from outside. "The mess is being run by one person, resulting in Monopoly," he mentioned, adding that because of this, the mess often remains closed and when poor quality of food being offered to the residents, there is no one to stop them.
"We have also written to the Principal of the medical college and if the authorities do not take action, we will approach the Secretary of Medical Education in this regard," he informed.
UDF Rajasthan has urged the Medical College Principal to improve the situation at the earliest, renew the agreement and remove the existing mess owner, said Dr. Pareek, adding "There should be 2-3 mess because of the huge crowd. This will ensure that there will not be any monopoly of a particular mess owner."
