AHMEDABAD: Resident doctors in Gujarat on Thursday called off their strike over the postponement of NEET-PG counseling after the government assured that more doctors will be recruited to reduce their workload.
Health Minister Rushikesh Patel said the state government has decided to recruit 543 doctors on ad-hoc basis on a monthly salary of Rs 63,000 to ease the burden on Post Graduate medical students who are serving as resident doctors in civil hospitals.
The deans of six government medical colleges have been given powers to use the services of ad-hoc doctors until the new batch of Post Graduate students arrives, he told reporters.
"I am glad that resident doctors have decided to call off their strike. Once the admission process for NEET-PG gets completed, we will also recruit resident doctors on a regular basis. The government has also recruited 3,000 staff nurses recently," said the minister.
Protesting doctors welcomed the government's decision.
"We will be joining our duties from tomorrow," said Dr Oman Prajapati, vice-president of the Junior Doctors' Association of Ahmedabad's BJ Medical College.
Resident doctors at various medical colleges in Gujarat were on strike from Tuesday, claiming that delay in NEET-PG counseling, a part of the admission process, was causing an acute shortage of doctors at civil hospitals and increased their workload.
Elsewhere, the Federation of Resident Doctors' Association, spearheading a nationwide protest since November 27 over the delay in NEET-PG 2021 counselling, said the stir has been suspended for a week.
In a statement, it said the decision has been taken in view of developments over the issue in the last few days and the death of Chief of Defence Staff Gen Bipin Rawat and others in a copter crash on Wednesday.