Gujarat government today sacked over 600 striking resident doctors whose strike demanding higher stipend and better working conditions entered seventh day.
Gujarat government today sacked over 600 striking resident doctors whose strike demanding higher stipend and better working conditions entered seventh day.
"We have terminated services of 630 resident doctors who were in the first year. The decision on the remaining will be taken later," principal Secretary (Health) Ravi Saxena told PTI. The government had recently invoked the Essential Services Maintenance Act against the striking medicos.
On negotiations between the government and the doctors, Saxena said no such talks were in progress. Gujarat Association of Resident Doctors spokesperson, Dr Vivek Patel said,"Iincrease in stipend is not their only demand, as being portrayed by the state government to gain sympathy of the people."
"Besides rise in stipend, we have demanded better working conditions, latest equipment and hygienic conditions in government hospitals. We have also demanded better living condition and duty hours," said Patel.
"The government is not portraying correct picture before the people by saying that we are striking only for money. It is not that we are not ready to talk, but government is asking us to put off the strike unconditionally first," Patel said.
"They have already terminated over 600 first year resident doctors who are the most vulnerable group as their registration with the Medical Council of India was still pending," he said, adding, "but we are not going to bow down.We are waiting for termination of other 1,200 resident doctors." Termination at this stage would hamper their careers, but there is no other option, he said.
Patel also said that they were forced to close down the parallel OPD facility which they had begun in the civil hospital compound here for the benefit of patients, after a government notice saying they cannot indulge in such activities under ESMA.
On the state health minister's assurance that as most of the interns who had joined strike earlier have resumed duty, conditions in the hospitals will become normal, Patel said it was a "misguiding statement".
"The interns do not play any role in functioning of the hospital. They are the MBBS final year students who are here to observe the work done in the hospitals. Their resuming duty make hardly any difference," he said.
Meanwhile, in a late night development, the Gujarat wing of the Indian Medical Association declared its support to the ongoing strike by the resident doctors in the state. Speaking to PTI, IMA Gujarat President Dr Mansukh Kanani said, "we have declared our support to the resident doctors and have requested the state government to work towards reaching an amicable solution."
"We have conveyed to the government through a letter that the demands made by the resident doctors are just and fair and should be approved for the betterment of health service in the state," Kanani said. With this, all the 117 medical association in Gujarat have extended their support to the doctors' strike.
Today, on the seventh day of the strike, the doctors wrote postcards to the state health minister Jaynarayan Vyas and formed a human chain in the civil hospital compound here as a symbol of their protest.
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