Interns at Ruia boycott duties

Tirupati: The interns working at Ruia Hospital have boycotted the duties on Tuesday, demanding immediate release of their stipend by the government. It was said that they were not getting their stipend from October 2018 and repeated representations to the authorities in this matter went in vain. While the interns in other medical colleges have received the stipend, due to the lethargic attitude of Ruia Hospital authorities, those working in Ruia Hospital did not receive the same. 

The AP Junior Doctors Association of Tirupati unit members, who were on protest, said that the hospital authorities have not sent the attendance details and bills to the concerned within the stipulated time. By the time, they submitted all the bills on December 22, the government reportedly gave instructions to the treasuries to freeze all the payments, while colleagues in other teaching hospitals have received them by that time. 

Without getting stipends, they have been facing severe hardships due to financial commitments, said a doctor. As a last resort, they have gone on strike and boycotted electives on Tuesday giving time to authorities till Wednesday morning to take immediate steps and credit the stipend arrears into their accounts within 24 hours.

Failing to do so, they threatened to boycott all emergency services too from Wednesday morning. Even though about 200 interns were on strike now, patient services may get a blow partially. However, as PG doctors were not joining the strike, they have to feel the extra burden in the absence of junior doctors.

Notably, the striking interns have highlighted another major problem that was plaguing Ruia Hospital for quite some time was non-availability of several emergency drugs, glucose strips, blood transfusion sets and several other emergency materials. The issue was highlighted by The Hans India on June 26, 2018 with the title, “Ruia’s laxity hits patient care hard” which clearly pointed out that out of 564 listed drugs only 200 available in the hospital and even life-saving drugs were not in stock.

The junior doctors also said that in the absence radio diagnosis, X-ray film and CT video and other services at the emergency block they have to run between the casualty to diagnostic services to get the reports as part of the treatment. In case of emergency, even a small delay may prove fatal, they worried and demanded to provide those services at casualty also without further delay. There were no washrooms and separate rooms for interns at the casualty which has been creating a huge problem for those on duty.

With all these demands, they have started the strike and staged a demonstration before the administrative block of Ruia Hospital. The interns have also raised slogans in support of their demands and vowed to continue their strike till their demands were met. Dr Kranthi Kiran, Dr Chaitanya, Dr Swaroop, Dr Likhit, Dr Umesh, Dr Sravya, Dr Sophia and several others took part in the agitation.