Junior doctors boycott out patient services

Ongole: The senior residents working in the government hospitals boycotted the out-patient (OP) services at the Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences here from Tuesday. They announced that they will also stop attending the emergency and casualty services after three days, if the government did not keep up their promises made to them a few months ago.

Dr N Vamsikrishna, general secretary of Andhra Pradesh Junior Doctors Association, said that the junior doctors and senior residents are bringing the issues related to them to the notice of the government since 2013. Since then, the government is making promises on the paper, but not implementing them in reality, he alleged.

Explaining the demands, he said that they asked the government to provide registrations of certificates before the compulsory service, pay the promised stipend and increments in time and clear the arrears immediately. After a number of meetings with the government, he said that the director of medical education asked them to wait until February 28 for realisation of the demands or go on strike.

P Sarath Chandra, president of APJUDA, RIMS Ongole, said that the government is forcing them to take the agitation path by not keeping up its promises. He and other doctors said their major concern is registrations. Without registrations, they are not eligible to apply for exams, jobs or even doing PG at other states.

As the MCI is made it mandatory to do one-year service after registration to join job at hospitals, the doctors said that their one- year mandatory service is going waste and not being considered. If the government provides registration at the time of starting the service, then they will be considered on par with all the candidates from other states, they said.