HYDERABAD/WARANGAL: Junior doctors are likely to join the strike undertaken by the senior resident doctors in the State if the demands of the latter are not met within two days. The Telangana Junior Doctors Association (TJUDA) on Friday extended their support to the senior doctors protesting against unpaid salaries and pending stipend dues.
“The senior residents have been providing services without remuneration for the last eight months despite the prevailing post- Covid economic conditions,” a statement issued by TJUDA said. “We, TJUDA, stand in support of the Telangana Senior Resident Doctors Association (TSRDA) and request the government to pay heed to their demands,” the statement further said.
There are at least four senior resident doctors and 10 junior doctors in each department of a government hospital. “If the junior doctors join our protest, there will be a serious shortage of doctors,” a senior resident doctor at the Gandhi Hospital said.
Boycotting emergency services on the National Doctors’ Day on Friday, the senior resident doctors staged protests at the government hospitals across the State. Raising slogans such as ‘We have families to feed’, they reiterated that they will not step back until all their demands are met.
Patient services hit at MGM
Senior Resident doctors of the Mahatma Gandhi Memorial (MGM) Hospital, Warangal, who have been protesting against the outstanding stipend dues, boycotted emergency duties on Friday. The doctors staged a protest with placards outside the emergency ward of the hospital seeking immediate release of pending stipend and regularisation.
Patient services were hit at MGM, which is the largest government hospital that caters to six districts in Northern Telangana, as the senior doctors boycotted emergency services. However, as per the directions of Superintendent of MGM Hospital Dr V Chandrashekhar, the regular doctors attended to the patients at the emergency ward.
Speaking to mediapersons, Dr Krishna Chaitanya, a member of the Telangana Senior Resident Doctors Association (TSRDA), said that the senior resident doctors treated Covid- 19 patients relentlessly throughout the first and second waves of the pandemic even without proper accommodation and basic facilities, but the State government did not recognise their services.