Patients wait outside the OPDs at R.M.L. Hospital as resident doctors of government-run hospitals in New Delhi on Thursday were on strike demanding an increase in salaries and allowances. (Photo: Pritam Bandyopadhyay)
Patients shuttled from one hospital to another to seek medical help as the Federation of Resident Doctors Association (FORDA), which represents over 15,000 resident doctors and 41 government hospitals in the national capital, took out a protest march from Lady Hardinge Medical College to Jantar Mantar in support of their demands, including a hike in salaries. Carrying banners and shouting slogans, the resident doctors also protested outside the Union health ministry office at Nirman Bhavan. The doctors shouted slogans like, “Unite and fight against 7th Pay Commission” and “Doctors care for the patients nobody cares for the doctors.”
Like Sabra Begum, many other patients in other city hospitals were unable to get treatment due to the strike. At R.M.L. Hospital, 25-year-old Anup, who was injured in a road accident, had to wait for three hours before he was told by the doctors to go to Safdarjung Hospital. The doctors told him they would not be able to provide him any conveyance and he would have to shift on his own.
At LNJP, several patients were allotted beds, but were not provided with any medical assistance. A middle-aged man writhing in pain said he had been lying in the hospital bed for two hours without getting any treatment. “We have been waiting here for quite some time now. We have asked the doctors to provide us with treatment. But the chief medical officers have been the only ones who have given us any assistance,” added one of the other patients.
The doctors’ association wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, urging him to revise the 7th Pay Commission recommendations for the doctors. “The government provides us with a non-practice allowance that encourages doctors to enrol in government hospitals. Initially, the allowance given to us was 25 per cent. We were assured that the allowance would be raised to 40 per cent, but instead it was reduced to 20 per cent. Through these protests, we are demanding a revision of this commission and a raise in our allowances,” junior resident doctor Manoj told this newspaper.
The protest march was first to culminate at Nirman Bhavan but on the request of the police officials, the doctors changed the location to Jantar Mantar. Asked what measures they had taken for emergency care in the hospitals, a senior Lady Hardinge doctor claimed: “Contingency plans have been put in place in all hospitals to cater to emergency and trauma cases.”
