Docs seek meet with PM Modi, want J P Nadda replaced

New Delhi: The Federation of Resident Doctors’ Association, on Friday, sought a meeting with PM Narendra Modi to ask for a solution to the rising number of attacks on them. The doctors at AIIMS also wrote a letter to Mr Modi, appealing to “replace” Union health minister J.P. Nadda with minister of science and technology Harsh Vardhan.

“You can see the deteriorating condition of the health system ever since Mr Nadda took over as the health minister. As Mr Harsh Vardhan is a qualified doctor himself, he can find out better remedies for these problems,” said the letter.

The doctors have also threatened to go on an indefinite strike if steps are not taken to improve security at hospitals.

Earlier in the day, resident doctors at AIIMS organised a “funeral” of the the healthcare system in the country to protest against the assault on doctors in various parts of Maharashtra.

“Doctors are working for continuous 24 to 48 hours without any off. Most of the time, we miss our meal. A single resident is doing the work of 10 residents. This is because we think that serving humanity and carrying this system on our shoulders is our responsibility. In return, this system which has always failed to provide us proper equipment, infrastructure and necessary medicines is now not even ready to provide us a secure environment to practice,” said the Resident Doctors’ Association of AIIMS.

“The system is dead and we are carrying a corpse on our shoulders,” it added. The “arthi yatra (funeral procession)” was started from hostel number 7 of AIIMS.

This comes a day after resident doctors across major government hospitals in the city had gone on a one-day mass leave in solidarity with their counterparts in Maharashtra. The doctors were protesting against the frequent attacks on doctors by irate relatives of patients in various parts of Maharashtra in the past few weeks, the latest being in Sion Hospital in Mumbai.