PG medicos to go on a 12-hr strike today

Thiruvananthapuram: Postgraduate medical students working as residents in government medical college hospitals will go on a 12-hour strike on Monday in protest against the workload in the hospitals due to lack of adequate manpower.
“We have been tirelessly working for the past one year without any complaints, putting our studies at risk. Right now, only two batches are available for duties in medical colleges as final year students have completed their courses. The medical college hospitals in the state are facing acute manpower shortage,” said Dr Athul Ashok, state president of Kerala Medical Post Graduate Association (KMPGA).
The association had taken up the issue several times with the authorities, including the health minister. The director of medical education even held a discussion on Sunday with the medical students to call off their strike since it would severely affect the functioning of the hospitals. But the talks remained inconclusive since several demands raised by them were not met.
“The decentralization of Covid patient management is a must. The caseload must be shared with peripheral non-teaching institutions to bring down the rush at the medical college hospitals. Non-Covid patient care has been crippled in the MCHs now. We are destroying the largest medical training facilities of the state by overburdening it with Covid cases,” said Dr Naveen R, state secretary of the association.
The association is demanding to increase recruitments to the MCHs through the national health mission. The hospitals are going to face an acute shortage of hands since the doctors are busy preparing for NEET PG examinations while those in the current non-academic batch are completing their postings.
An increase in the number of non-academic senior resident posts has become inevitable. The finance department had approved 76 posts of senior residents, but the notification regarding the allotment of these posts has not yet been issued.
The other demands of the association include incentives and risk allowances for the resident doctors who are working round the clock and decongestion of medical college hospitals of extra ICU beds that they cannot support due to severe shortage inhuman resources, etc.