Around 1,000 resident doctors from various medical colleges in Gujarat left in a day strike Claiming on Tuesday that shortage of manpower in civil hospitals due to delay in fresh admissions in postgraduate courses has increased their workload significantly. Resident doctors attached to various government hospitals had also observed a similar strike on November 29 and stayed away from OPD (outpatient department) work from 9 am to 5 pm.
Oman Prajapati, vice-president of the Junior Doctors Association of Ahmedabad’s BJ Medical College, affiliated to the civil hospital, said that since the demands were not heard, they decided to hold a similar strike on Tuesday. “The strike will not cause any inconvenience to the patients as the resident doctors will be available for emergency duty. But, if a permanent solution is not found soon, we may withdraw from other services.”
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He claimed that due to paucity of manpower, a resident doctor was doing the job of three. Resident doctors from other major cities like Surat and Vadodara also joined the strike and sat outside the premises of their respective colleges to register their protest.
They are opposing the postponement of NEET-PG counselling, claiming the delay due to acute shortage of doctors is affecting the quality of treatment provided to patients in government hospitals as one resident doctor is working. , The Center had recently suspended the counseling for NEET-PG 2021 till January next year on certain issues and also informed the Supreme Court about the same. Counseling is part of the admission process.
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The National Eligibility cum Entrance Test for Postgraduate (NEET-PG) courses is conducted for fields such as Master of Surgery and Doctor of Medicine. “Due to the postponement of counseling, the new batch of PG students has not arrived yet. Ideally the new batch should have arrived in May. This time it will come in March next year. Thus, only two batches of resident doctors are treating all the patients for the past one year.”
He said that despite the symbolic strike on November 29, the officials did not speak to the resident doctors. A resident doctor from BJ Medical College here said, “All civil hospitals are usually run by resident doctors. But, now we are too cumbersome and mentally exhausted. Patients are also facing problems as hospitals are running with 35 per cent doctors. To reduce our workload, the government should think of appointing medical officers on a temporary basis.”
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