SAMBALPUR: The agitating junior doctors and house surgeons of Veer Surendra Sai Institute of Medical Sciences And Research (VIMSAR), Burla called off their cease work on the third day on Saturday after getting due assurance from the authorities.
On Saturday, Director of Medical Education and Training (DMET), Sachidananda Mohanty along with additional DMET, Uma Kanta Satpathy visited Sambalpur to discuss the issue and held a meeting with the district collector, RDC (ND), VIMSAR director and other authorities. Subsequently, they went to discuss with the agitating junior doctors and house surgeons and assured them of necessary action following which the agitation was called off at around 6 pm.
While the agitation had started on Thursday, a delegation of the agitating junior residents and house surgeons went to Bhubaneswar, to meet the CM, health secretary, DMET and other authorities concerned.
Out of their many demands, the reshuffle of departmental official for lapses in duty and transfer of the accounts officer for delay in discharging duty were fulfilled on Friday. The other issues raised by the agitating students included delay in fulfilment of developmental promises such as the installation of WiFi on the campus, alleged demands for bribes by certain staff members and lack of attention by the dean towards students’ issues and problem in functioning of patient-related facilities like MRI, ICU etc. They have also demanded changing the dean and principal, accounts officer and head clerk of education section.
General secretary of House Surgeons Union, Rohan Kumar Nayak said, “We had a fruitful discussion with the DMET and other authorities and were convinced with their assurance following which we decided to call off the protest in the general body meeting held on Saturday in the evening. We realise that though the patient-related issues are chronic, it will take time to be resolved. Likewise, the other problems also need time to be addressed. For the larger good of the patients, we will be resuming our duty from Sunday.”
Due to the agitation, patient care was partially paralysed in the hospital. Moreover, the UG students also boycotted classes and internal examination. However, the agitating junior doctors and house surgeons attended emergency cases during the agitation.