Healthcare workers at Delhi’s Hindu Rao Hospital, a Covid dedicated hospital, on Friday continued their protest over non-payment of salaries and threatened to stop working unless they are paid salaries for last three months.
In a letter to the medical superintendent of the hospital, the Resident Doctors Association said, “we are failing miserably to even run our basic errands and accomplish at thriving our daily routine hence we are retracting to further provide our services in the emergency Covid department.”
Federation of Resident Doctors’ Association (FORDA) extended their support to the protest. “Being a Covid hospital, doctors of the hospital are risking their lives at the workplace in this epidemic but are not being paid and it has become difficult for them to meet their daily expenditures and to support their families,” a letter by FORDA president Shivaji Dev Barman read, according to The New Indian Express.
Resident doctors and nurses at Hindu Rao Hospital went on a “symbolic indefinite strike” on Wednesday. They held placards and raised slogans demanding their due salaries for the last three months.
Since it is a dedicated Covid-19 facility, medical services will not be essentially affected, the striking medical workers said, according to The Hindu. Doctors, who are not on rotational duty, will join the strike for three hour duration, they added.
Chairman of the Standing Committee of the BJP-led North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) Chhail Bihari Goswami told PTI that “crores of money in liability is due to NDMC from the Delhi government”.
“For the current financial year and FY 2019-20, a huge amount of fund is due for the city government, including under the salary segment. The government had allocated it under their budget, to the civic bodies. Because, they haven’t released funds, we are unable to pay salaries,” he added.
In a statement, AAP said that if the BJP cannot run the MCD, it should resign and hand it over to AAP.
Doctors in other states have also gone on strike over non-payment of salaries or pay cuts.
As many as 868 junior doctors in Kerala protested over salary cut last month and the junior doctors association alleged that 382 doctors were not paid even after three months of service, according to The Times of India.
An Indian Medical Association (IMA) report, submitted to the Rajya Sabha in September, revealed how resident doctors have been suffering due to long work hours, no mental health help and pay cuts.
The report said that residents at government hospitals have been posted at ICUs, no matter what their specialty is. Residents are also called back to work without adequate break despite the government directive of a compulsory 14-day quarantine period between two shifts at a Covid facility.
“Resident doctors’ pay is cut when they are quarantined after being tested positive while on duty,” the report said.
(With PTI inputs)