Resident Doctors in Delhi Continue Strike, Demanding Union Health Ministry To Intercede

Even as the Delhi government accepted their demands for proper security, accommodation and adequate availability of generic drugs in hospitals, resident doctors decided to continue their strike. The strike, which began earlier on June //22, 2015 was the second protest in the past 6 months and had severely affected functioning of the 25 government hospitals in the capital.

The resident doctors were on strike under the banner of the Federation Of Resident Doctors Association (FORDA), an association of 25 Delhi-based government hospitals run by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi, the Delhi government and the central government.

A resident doctor said that even if they were convinced by the sincerity of the Delhi government's promise to improve their working environment, they have to wait till the union health ministry intervenes and pays heed to the problem.

"Only the Delhi government has accepted the demands but our association also has members working in hospitals run by the central government and the municipal corporation", said one of the protesting doctors.

Intervening in the matter, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal directed the health officials to implement the demands of resident doctors, calling them "genuine problems".

With about 20,000 resident doctors on strike, medical services were badly hit. An official said shortage of doctors led to treatment of only 10 percent of patients in the Out Patients Departments (OPDs).

"It was not possible to deal with all the patients with resident doctors on strike. Senior doctors treated emergency cases and other patients needing immediate attention," said an official of the Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Hospital.



Source-IANS