The anti-reservation agitation spread to different parts of the country on Monday with private doctors joining the IMA-led
strike.
NEW DELHI: The anti-reservation agitation by medical students spread to different parts of the country on Monday with private doctors also joining the IMA-called nation
wide strike, crippling basic health services for the second straight day.
As the agitation gathered steam, Human Resource Development Minister Arjun Singh said he is ready to hold discussions on the issue with the striking students if they
come forward for talks.
Thousands of medical students boycotted classes while government and private doctors struck work in hospitals in Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Bangalore and New Delhi, where a mass indefinite hunger strike by students of five premier medical colleges continued.
Normal and emergency services were affected in several hospitals in the national capital due to the strike with private hospitals also announcing closure of OPD services in support of the strike.
The striking resident doctors said they are running parellel OPDs in hospitals to "ensure that patients are not deprived of basic facilities and to minimise problems caused by the one-day strike."
Hundreds of patients and their relatives were seen looking for help in various hospitals across the capital. However, authorities claimed they have initiated steps to ensure that essential services were maintained.
At least 150 students of five medical colleges of Delhi and some adjoining colleges, under the 'Youth For Equality' banner, continued their indefinite hunger strike at the premier healthcare institute AIIMS demanding immediate rollback of the controversial proposals.
With the strike spreading fast, the Centre on Monday held an emergency meeting of Home and Health Ministry officials and representatives of Delhi government and police on the issue.
A woman medical student from Lady Hardinge Medical College, who was on hunger strike at AIIMS, was admitted to hospital emergency ward after she collapsed apparently because of dehydration. Her identity was not immediately disclosed.
Doctors from across the capital also held a demonstration at Rajghat demanding withdrawal of the proposals and action against police who had baton-charged striking students in Mumbai on Saturday.
Medical students in Gujarat, who are on an indefinite strike since Saturday, took to the streets, while their counterparts in government-run medical colleges in Bangalore boycotted classes.
In Mumbai, where striking medicos were baton-charged on Saturday, students, doctors and consultants will take out a demonstration to the state secretariat demanding judicial probe into the police action.
Emergency medical services were partially affected in government hospitals across Punjab and Chandigarh as junior and senior resident doctors, medical students and paramedical staff stayed away from work.
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