BHUBANESWAR: Many post graduate doctors and senior residents of SCB Medical College and Hospital who were engaged in Covid duty in different districts have not received salary for the last four months. The doctors alleged despite instructions from the Health and Family Welfare department to not delay salary payment, some clerks in the accounts section of the hospitals where they have been deployed continued to play mischief and harass them for no reason.
Sources said 111 senior residents were directed to report to chief district medical and public health officers and join duty immediately after their recruitment following the outbreak of novel coronavirus. Most of the doctors who have been working relentlessly putting their and family members’ lives in danger have not been paid salary since June.
The resident doctors are facing difficulties in even paying the house rent and managing their daily expenses. “We have been tirelessly working in critical conditions day and night like other doctors. But we have not been paid our salary for the last four months. We are away from our home and do not have enough money,” said a senior resident.
The Resident Doctors’ Association (RDA) has urged the State Government to resolve the issue at the earliest. RDA president Dr Harmohan Barik said it is a matter of shame and disappointment that the Covid warriors are deprived of their basic salary and being forced to work under extreme stressful times without any payment.
“The clerical issue is a pan-Odisha and perennial problem. The doctors are at their mercy to get their salary credited. How can they be neglected like this? Their sacrifices are being extremely demeaned to no value and it is demotivating to see such sluggish response of the authorities to the repeated requests of the doctors for their salary,” he pointed out.
In June, the Supreme Court had taken serious note of the non-payment of doctors engaged in Covid-19 duty and asked the States to settle the issues soon.