VIJAYAWADA : The strike by junior doctors at Siddhartha Medical College (SMC) has been temporarily suspended for one week.
In a release on Sunday, the Andhra Pradesh Junior Doctors Association (APJUDA) APJUDA-SMC wing president Dr Dharmakar Pujari said they decided to temporarily withdrew the strike for one week following a meeting with the Director of Medical Education (DME) Dr Narasimham after protesting for two days, demanding enhanced security measures at hospitals among other issues.
Meanwhile, the State-wide strike called by the APJUDA in support of SMC medicos has also been suspended following assurances from the DME to arrange talks with Special Chief Secretary (Health and Family Welfare) MT Krishna Babu.
However, APJUDA decided to attend duties with black badges from Sunday as part of their protest against violence towards doctors.
It may be recalled that on July 12, APJUDA leaders submitted a strike notice to the DME, stating that they would halt all services except emergencies across the State. In response, the DME organised a virtual conference with the leaders of 11 medical colleges on Saturday.
After discussing several issues, he assured them that a committee would be set up to identify the problems faced by doctors in hospitals and formulate an action plan for resolving them. He promised to arrange a meeting with the Principal Secretary (HM&FW) in a couple of days.
APJUDA State president Dr Deekshith said, “We are in distress due to the violence against doctors in hospitals. We are demanding a permanent solution from the government. Following the strike of SMC-JUDA, we issued a notice, stating that junior doctors across the State will go on strike. Meanwhile, the DME assured a discussion with higher officials. Hence, we temporarily withdrew the strike. If talks fail with the higher officials, we will go on State-wide strike until our demands are met. Our main demand is security at workplace.”
He added a team from Andhra Medical College (AMC), Visakhapatnam team will meet Health Minister Y Satya Kumar and submit a memorandum.