RIMS senior residents launch agitation

Ongole: The Senior Residents Forum of Andhra Pradesh Junior Doctors Association in Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences here launched an agitation in front of the hospital on Saturday. They disclosed that if the government did not fulfil its promises in three days, they will boycott services.

P Sarath Chandra, L Naveen, representatives of the senior residents at RIMS said, “We have put forth a few demands like registration of our certificates before commencement of compulsory service, implement the promised increment of stipends at 15 per cent for every two years, pay the arrears of stipend immediately, appoint regular doctors in the hospitals. 

As per MCI, any doctor should do one-year residentship after the registration of certificates to work in teaching hospitals. The MCI is not considering our one-year residentship as our certificates are not registered by then.”
 
The Telangana government had promised to cancel the compulsory service and recruit regular doctors, representatives of the senior residents at RIMS pointed out.
They are asking the government to do the same so that the hospitals get sufficient doctors. “Also, there are women senior residents who require maternity leave. We are demanding the government to consider their request also.

 The government gave a written promise to address all our pleas by February 2018, but failed. So, we are left with no other option but to agitate. We will wait for the government response for three days and announce the course of action after discussing the same with state-level leadership”, they said.

K Babji, director of medical education, speaking to The Hans India said, “We are processing their requests but they are taking agitation path. There is only one request by them, payment of arrears of nearly Rs 32 crore which were pending. 

We told them that it will be resolved by next week. All of them should do one- year service without fail. If the women take three months maternity leave, they should complete it later. There is no other option for them. As there is no health minister now, the senior residents should stop agitation and give time for the government to complete the process.”