NEW DELHI: The doctors at Hindu Rao Hospital under the North Delhi Municipal Corporation (North MCD) have written to LG Anil Baijal seeking payment of their salaries and better facilities.
The doctors had earlier staged a protest highlighting their plight. Dr Abhimanyu Sardana, president of Resident Doctors’ Association, said that they were provided salaries for months of March and April in July after the court’s intervention.
When asked about the salaries for May, the administration told them that their share was distributed among other workers owing to lack of funds.
“The main problem is the clash between authorities — MCD and state govt are not on the same platform when it comes to payment of funds. It’s always a blame game,” he said.
“All we want is our salaries on time at least during the pandemic phase. If MCD cannot run Hindu Rao Hospital, they should hand it over to Delhi government,” said Dr Sardana added.
“The hospital has also been converted into a Covid-19 hospital. It is necessary to boost the morale of the employees. However, if we don’t get salaries on time, why would anyone like to work here? Tired of the same responses from MCD and state govt, we decided to approach the Lt Governor,” he added.
When the RDA had highlighted these issues in earlier this month, they had also asked to improve the infrastructure of the Covid-19 ward.
“Unfortunately, none of that has happened. We were told that around 45 new ACs have been purchased for the purpose but there are no new ACs in the Covid-19 ward. How will the doctors wearing PPE kits work?” he asked.
According to sources in the hospital, many resident doctors have resigned due to the poor working conditions.
New doctors are hesitant to join after seeing the infrastructure of the hospital. There are more than 300 resident doctors and 600 plus professors and consultants hospital.
A North MCD top official said that the matter is being considered and the civic body is looking for a permanent solution.