TD Medical College Alappuzha paediatrics junior resident attempts suicide over excessive duty hours

Alappuzha: In a shocking incident, a first-year junior resident doctor in the Paediatrics department at TD Government Medical College in Alappuzha allegedly attempted suicide, reportedly due to excessive duty hours.

According to the information accessed by Medical Dialogues, the resident doctor allegedly attempted to hang herself around midnight on March 6, 2026. She was rescued in time with the help of local police, hospital authorities and her parents. She is currently alive but said to be in deep distress.

The doctor has been under severe stress due to continuous long working hours during her residency. After the incident, the HoD allegedly visited her residence and told her that if she was unable to continue with the long duty hours, she could leave the postgraduate seat by paying a penalty of Rs 50 lakh.

The doctor is reportedly worried about returning to the same working conditions or facing the heavy financial penalty if she leaves the programme.

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Before the incident, she had sent several WhatsApp messages to her fiancé expressing her distress. In the messages, she reportedly wrote that she could not cope with the duties and feared that nothing would change. She also said that if anything happened to her, people should know it was because of the workload in college.

She wrote to her fiancé on WhatsApp - "Nothing will work, I will die, you look after my parents, maybe in the next life we can have a family. I am going to die in front of the hospital. If I die, you tell everyone it is because of the duties in college. I am going to hang inside the PG room of the Paediatrics Dept. I came there."

The messages indicated that she planned to end her life inside the PG room of the Paediatrics department.

The doctors in support of the female doctor alleged that "This is very unfortunate that despite the 1992 residency scheme of the Ministry of Health for 48 hours maximum duty in a week, many resident doctors are suffering from mental and physical problems due to illegal long duty hours."

Speaking to Medical Dialogues, Dr Lakshya Mittal, Chairperson and President of United Doctors Front (UDF) said that no resident doctors should be pushed to such distress due to inhumane working conditions.

UDF has demanded immediate intervention, mental health support for the doctor and strict enforcement of the 48-hour weekly duty limit under the Residency Scheme.

Dr Mittal said, “Her family reached out to me regarding the severe mental and physical distress she was facing. Doctors should not be treated like labourers. Their well-being also matters.”

Despite long-standing demands from resident doctors, the recommended limit on duty hours is often not followed in many medical colleges. Under the 1992 residency scheme of the Ministry of Health, resident doctors are supposed to work a maximum of 48 hours per week.

However, in reality, residents continue to work far beyond this limit, often doing continuous and exhausting shifts, which has repeatedly raised concerns about their mental and physical well-being.

Also read- Will 48-hour work week for doctors become a reality?