Delhi doctors on strike, threaten mass resignation

The doctors and other medical staff of several hospitals in Delhi, are demanding that their pending salaries be paid

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About 40 resident doctors, both senior and junior, of the Kasturba Hospital, Delhi are going on strike for a week, starting today, that is October 14. They are protesting against the non-payment of their salaries.

The strike will be on till October 20. The doctors have threatened to resign, enmass, if their dues are not cleared. The protesting doctors of the hospital, which is run by the North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC), have apparently not been paid since July 2020.

Elsewhere, the doctors and nurses at the Rajan Babu Institute of Pulmonary Medicine and Tuberculosis, in North Delhi — which treats patients suffering from tuberculosis and respiratory diseases — are also up in arms over pending salaries. The employees at the institute have not been paid their salaries for four months now.

Considering that these doctors have been risking their lives to serve patients throughout the pandemic, it is unfair that their salaries be held back, when these ‘corona warriors’ should be the first to be compensated.

On October 12, the Delhi government had asked the municipal corporations to hand over their hospitals to it if they were unable to pay their doctors and medical staff.

The strike has disrupted medical services and many COVID-19 patients have been forced to shift to other hospitals, which are not run by the NDMC.

Hindu Rao Hospital has now been taken off the list of designated COVID-19 hospitals following the strikes by its doctors and nurses over the past couple of months.

The protesting doctors and nurses feel they are victims of politics. They are unable to figure out why the MCD, with a budget of Rs 18,000 crore, is unable to disburse the salaries of its medical staff.

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