Hyderabad: Junior doctors at government-run hospitals in Telangana continued their strike for the second day on Thursday. The Telangana Junior Doctors Association (TJUDA) continued their protests and even boycotted emergency services in the government’s teaching and related hospitals.
About 4,000 junior doctors went on strike to press their demands.
They started the strike on Wednesday with the boycott of Covid-19 and non-Covid-19 electives and intensified it on Thursday with the boycott of emergency duties.
Although Prime Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao accepted some of the demands and assured that the government is ready to consider all their legal demands, the striking junior doctors insist that the government should give orders or give them written assurance.
TJUDA held a meeting at Osmania Medical College, where the leaders briefed the members on the discussions held with the Director of Medical Education, Ramesh Reddy.
The meeting will determine the future action.
The striking junior doctors held demonstrations at various hospitals and demanded that the government immediately accept their demands.
‘Our lives matter’, reads one of the posters held by protesters.
From January 2020, TJUDA will demand a 15 percent walk for junior doctors with retroactive effect, ex gratia of Rs 50 lakh for family members of junior doctors who have died Covid-19, allocating beds in Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences (NIMZ) for health workers, including junior doctors and their family members for free treatment, and 10 percent risk allowance
The minister on Wednesday announced a 15 per cent increase in the fee for doctors of senior residents.
He also extended the improved honorarium to the medical students engaged in the Covid-19 duties after their three-year MBBS course.
The Prime Minister also ordered that medical facilities for junior doctors and their family members at NIMS be further strengthened.
Chandrasekhar Rao also called on junior doctors to strike immediately and return to service. He said it was not proper to strike during the pandemic.
He assured that the government is ready to address justified demands from junior doctors.
“If the demands of junior doctors are justified, the government has no objection to resolving them. They can bring the demands to the government and have them resolved. But it is not appropriate to remember the duties now and then under the pretext of a strike without first understanding the time and situation and causing people discomfort time and time again. “In addition, no one will rise under the current emergency caused by Corona, not even the people,” he said.
Source: The Siasat Daily