Ajit Chauhan, a resident of Delhi’s Uttam Nagar, reached Safardjung Hospital early on Friday with his two-year-old baby. He was hopeful that the doctors at one of Delhi’s most reputable hospitals would see to the treatment of his daughter’s eye. Unfortunately, things didn’t pan out as planned. He had to leave as no one attended to his daughter despite waiting for hours. Reason? A strike by resident doctors.
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“I had come here for my daughter’s eye treatment. The hospital staff asked me to wait till the strike gets over,” Chauhan said. “I tried to meet the doctors, but they (hospital staff) stopped me and asked me to wait outside. I was not the only one. Many people were waiting for the doctors.”
Doctors stage a protest at Safdarjung Hospital.
The Safdarjung Hospital is only one of the hundreds of government hospitals where RDA doctors have decided to withdraw themselves from all medical services, including OPD and emergency. This is the second phase of their strike.
The Federation of Resident Doctors’ Association (FORDA) had given notice to the Union Health Ministry about their strike. In the first phase, the RDA doctors had gone on a strike between November 27 and December 8. However, when they got assurances from the central government about the pending demand related to the NEET PG 2021 counselling, they withdrew their strike call.
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On Friday, December 17, the FORDA again called a nationwide strike and withdrew from all medical services. The doctors are demanding the fast-tracking of the NEET PG 2021 counselling case, which is pending in front of the Supreme Court.
The NEET PG 2021 counselling and admission process got delayed as the case is pending in the Supreme Court.
Uma Devi, 42, from Bhangel, is a cancer patient who had to go back disappointed because of the strike. Last week, too, she faced the same problem.
Several petitions, challenging the EWS quota in the All India Quota (AIQ) for the NEET PG 2021 counselling, are pending with the SC. While the FORDA is pushing for fast-tracking of the case so that the admission process can be expedited, the strike by doctors has landed patients and their families in a soup.
“I reached here with my pregnant wife around 6 am. Although they issued us the OPD slip, the doctors didn’t assist us properly due to the strike,” said a 29-year-old North Delhi resident. “We faced the same problem two weeks ago when the doctors were on strike. Now, they have resumed their agitation. The hospital staff asked us to either wait till the strike ends or go to a private facility.”
Rajendra, a Faridabad resident, said, “While I agree with the doctors’ strike, they should have adopted a method that would have conveyed their demands without causing troubles to patients. We took the day off from work and travelled several kilometres to reach here. But now, we shall have to return disappointed. They could have resorted to a black-band protest or a silent protest or a symbolic dharna to register their demands and grievances.”
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FORDA President Dr Manish said, “We had started the protest on November 27 and continued it till December 8. The Centre had assured us that within a week, the government will give us a concrete solution. But in the past week, we have not received any written communication from them. Because they didn’t act on their promise, the FORDA was forced to resume its strike, demanding the fast-tracking of the NEET PG 2021 counselling case pending in Supreme Court.”
The second phase of the strike by the FORDA is an indefinite one. The doctors said that “the government had failed them”.
Doctors take to the streets to demand the fastracking of NEET-related cases.
“In our last two letters, we told the central government to act by December 16, else we would be forced to go on an indefinite strike. This time, we are not going to settle for mere verbal assurances,” Manish said. “During our meeting with the Union health minister, he had assured us that they would push for fast-tracking of the cases,” he added.
While the patients rushing to Delhi’s premier hospitals like Safdarjung Hospital are facing problems due to the strike, the RDA doctors are claiming that they don’t intend to cause trouble to patients and their kins. “However, we do not have a choice but to carry on the indefinite strike,” a doctor said.
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