Nagpur: Medical services across the Government Medical Colleges and Hospitals are likely to be crippled and patients may be in trouble as resident doctors in Maharashtra have threatened to go on a pan-Maharashtra strike starting Feb 7 if their demands of timely stipend payments and accommodation are not met.
The looming action raises concerns about the impact on patient care and highlights the pressing need for resolution between the resident doctors and the relevant authorities to avert disruptions in essential medical services.
The Central Maharashtra Association of Resident Doctors (MARD) has given an ultimatum to the government till Wednesday, February 7. If the government ignores this, more than four thousand resident doctors of Central MARD in the State will go on an indefinite strike, warning that there will be a boycott of all services except trauma, casualty department, ICU and emergency surgery, said Shubham Mahalle, President of MARD.
The MARD said that they have written 28 letters to the Medical Education Department and Minister Hasan Mushrif but they have only received “dry verbal assurances”.
The association called it “cruel” that despite being a prosperous state, the state has failed to pay resident doctors stipends on time. The state has more than 4000 resident doctors in its 25 medical colleges.
A resident doctor in a government medical college under the Central Government gets a stipend payment of Rs.1.10 lakh. Compared to that, the resident doctors in the government medical colleges of the Maharashtra Government are given a stipend payment of Rs.80,000. Even this already low stipend payment is not paid regularly and on time.
