In Maharashtra, eight thousand resident doctors are on an indefinite strike due to the terrible living conditions in hostels and the meager monthly stipends that are frequently months behind schedule. The doctors demonstrating said they have been calling for reforms for a while but have only received promises from the government.
The physicians claimed that their monthly stipend was less than that of their colleagues in UP and Bihar. They claimed that their suffering was made worse by the hostel’s subpar accommodations. Five people must live in one room, there are rats running around the hostel, and water is dripping from the room ceilings, according to junior female doctors.
The physicians said that because of the inadequate facilities, they occasionally have to sleep on patient beds. According to reports, Maharashtra has the highest GDP of any state in India. There are worries that patients may suffer due to doctors’ unavailability as a result of the indefinite strike. They will still offer emergency services, though.
“We do not want to cause any trouble to the patients, but we are forced to do this. We have been raising our demands for a year. There are more doctors and less hostel rooms for them. The stipend is less than Bihar-UP-Delhi and sometimes there’s a delay of four months. The government is saying they will credit it in two days, but two weeks have passed,” Dr Abhijeet Helge, President of Maharashtra Association of Resident Doctors Central, said.
“Despite the distressing situation of resident doctors, the benefit of the doubt was always given to the authority, and we entrusted them to do the right thing promptly to ensure the welfare of Resident doctors. However, regardless of our innumerable pleas, it seems our genuine concerns have fallen on deaf ears. Having been pushed to the limit by the cruel disregard towards the resident doctor’s legitimate demands, we, the Representative Body of the Resident doctors are left with no choice but to go on a pan-Maharashtra indefinite strike,” Dr Helge said earlier.
Similar worries were expressed by a resident physician, who stated, “Rats prowl the hostel room, and occasionally one is forced to sleep on the patient’s bed. We received our stipend late, so some people got married and took out loans, and some of them went on to have kids. Tell me what to do in this kind of situation. For a full year, we have been making demands. Even the doctors are getting sick.”
The resident doctors have written a letter to the Health Minister over their demands and a meeting also took place. The protesting doctors spoke to Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar over the phone too. It is believed there will be a consensus over the issues, but it is not certain when. Resident doctors are holding the government directly responsible for the lack of care for patients.
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