NEW DELHI: Resident doctors at the Delhi government-run Rajiv Gandhi Super Speciality Hospital called off their strike on Friday after the hospital administration credited outstanding salaries for two months to the resident doctor and also assured them to release the pending wages within a week’s time.
Taking this to X, president of the Resident Doctors’ Association (RDA), of the hospital, Dr Arun Kumar said, “Resident doctors of Rajiv Gandhi Super- Speciality Hospital called off the strike after getting the salary for two month and rest of the salary will be credited within a week as assured by administration of the hospital.”
Since June, the resident doctors at the Rajiv Gandhi Super Speciality Hospital were working without salaries. For this reason, the doctors had launched an indefinite strike on Monday, October 23. As part of the indefinite strike, the doctors said that they withdrew from elective services, including OPD and operation theatre (OT), effective from Monday.
However, the resident doctors continued their services to IPD patients already admitted in wards, ICUs and in cases of medical or surgical emergencies. “In the interest of patients, we called off our strike. However, we can agitate again if such a behaviour is repeated with us,” Kumar said.
The RDA president said that the delay in salaries has been a continuous issue which the resident doctors have been facing for the last couple of years. “It’s not that we faced the issue for the first time and hit the streets. We are facing the problem for a long time now and now we decided that only halting the services can push the administration to disburse our wages.
Even before going on strike, we gave multiple reminders to the administration,” Kumar added. According to the resident doctors, they had written to the director of Rajiv Gandhi Super Speciality Hospital regarding their concerns on October 7 as well as on October 16. Upon not receiving any response from the institute, the doctors called for an indefinite strike on Monday, October 23.
Kumar also added that the delay in salary has forced many resident doctors to resign their posts and migrate to other medical institutes. “The real reason behind the manpower crunch in the hospital is the constant delay in salary. Due to this, half of the clinical departments have no faculty or consultant. The surgeries in Gastroenterology department is stalled for months. X-ray is the most basic facility but it is not being done since there is no doctor in the radiology department,” he added.
‘No response despite repeated intimations’
According to the resident doctors, they had written to the director of Rajiv Gandhi Super Speciality Hospital regarding their concerns on October 7 as well as on October 16. Upon not receiving any response from the institute, the doctors called for an indefinite strike on Monday, October 23. Kumar also added that the delay in salary has forced many resident doctors to resign their posts and migrate to other medical institutes.