Extending support to the medicos of North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) run-hospitals protesting pending salaries, the AIIMS Resident Doctors' Association on Tuesday sought Prime Minister Narendra Modi's intervention in the matter and demanded the dues be paid through PM CARES fund as "temporary measures". Patients of North Corporation-run hospitals faced hardship as its senior doctors went on an indefinite strike on Tuesday, a day after they had gone on casual leave en masse over their pending salaries. Residents doctors of the Hindu Rao Hospital have been agitating over their pending salaries since the last week of September and by turns, five of their colleges have been sitting on a relay hunger strike for the past few days. Other hospitals under the North Corporation include Kasturba Hospital, Rajen Babu Tuberculosis Hospital and Mrs Girdhari Lal Maternity Hospital.
In a letter to the prime minister, the Resident Doctors' Association of AIIMS drew his attention to the "pathetic conditions" under which doctors are forced to work in many NDMC hospitals including the Hindu Rao Hospital. The RDA said that since the beginning of the pandemic healthcare workers have been working day and night risking their own lives. "It is disheartening to see that the same doctors who had been praised as 'heroes' and 'warriors' during this pandemic are even deprived of their basic salary and forced to work under such extreme stressful times without any payment since the last four months," stated the letter.
"Their sacrifices being extremely demeaned to no value and all the more its totally demotivating to see the sluggish response of the authorities to the repeated requests of the doctors," said the letter signed by AIIMS RDA President Dr Adarsh Pratap Singh, General Secretary Dr Pawan Sinhmar and vice president Dr Amandeep Singh. In their letter, the resident doctors further said Hindu Rao Hospital has been in the limelight since few months due to their recurring problem of irregular and long-standing salary delays.
Their prolonged wait had instilled serious disharmony and agitation among the doctors fraternity all over the country. As there was no fruitful response from the administration regarding their salary, the resident doctors in the hospital were forced to call for an indefinite strike and symbolic protests since October 5, they said. "We, AIIMS RDA, stand resolutely with our fellow colleagues in this regard and extend our solidarity for their fight against injustice of the administration," the letter stated.
"We hereby urge your (PM's) prompt intervention in this regard and necessary measures be implemented through concerned authorities on an urgent basis as per the directions of the Supreme Court and Delhi High Court. We also request you to provide salary through PM CARES fund as temporary measures to heal the emotions of these warriors," AIIMS RDA said in the letter.
Resident doctors of three Centre-run hospitals in Delhi also held symbolic protests to express solidarity with the agitating doctors. Resident doctors of Safdarjung Hospital and RML Hospital sported black ribbons in protest, while medics at Lady Hardinge Medical College and Hospital observed a symbolic pen-down protest for two hours in all wards barring those dedicated for COVID-19 patients and emergency services.
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