Click to play videoMumbai: Doctor services across Maharashtra have been hit as an indefinite strike by the resident doctors entered its second day. Hospital administrations tried to run emergency services, but many patients had to be still turned away due to lack of manpower.
Arjun Wamble, whose relative is in urgent need of care, said, "We were told that there is no doctor to look after your relative. We were asked to take him home and he was discharged."
The strike by about 4,500 resident doctors has affected 13 government hospitals and four municipal hospitals in the state. Over this, 2,500 interns have also joined in.
- The doctors are demanding pay according to the Central Residency Scheme or at par with other states
- A finite eight-hour-work schedule instead of being 24 hours on call
- Better security for doctors against unruly relatives of patients
- A proper housing scheme
- Better equipment to work with
Doctors say they have been negotiating with the government for a long time now without any results, but they say they will not let the patients suffer because of this deadlock.
Joint Secretary KEM, MARD, Dr Saurabh Phoolmali says, "We know how the patients are suffering. We won't attend campus but we will start a parallel OPD outside the campus and give them medicines."
The government has now called the doctors for fresh negotiations.
For the past few years, resident doctors in the state have been going on strike regularly every five to six months over the same issues, but neither the government nor the doctors seem to be coming up with a lasting solution for this.
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