40,000 doctors join stir, Maha medical services crippled
Govt expels 2,000 resident doctors across the state
Wednesday turned out to be a day of high drama in the medical fraternity in Maharashtra as over 1,500 resident doctors in Mumbai and over 500 across the state received expulsion notices from the state medical education department.
Patient services across major civic hospitals remained affected for the third day on Wednesday. In the absence of the residents, heads of departments, assistant professors, lecturers and interns stepped in to evaluate the patients.
Medical services across the state will be crippled as 12,000 doctors from Maharashtra and 28,000 across the country, who are members of Indian Medical Association (IMA), have joined the ongoing mass casual leave protest, resulting into a complete shutdown of medical establishments.
As the Bombay high court directed state and city officials of medical education department to take action against the protesting doctors on mass casual leave, over 1,500 resident doctors of the city woke up to show cause notices, issued by their respective deans. “If you fail to join work by 8pm, action will be taken against you which includes, permanent expulsion from your duties as a resident doctor,” read the notice.
Girish Mahajan, medical education minister, then informed the doctors that they will lose six months’ pay, if they fail to join work until 8pm on March 22. However, despite repeated threats, orders and meetings, only a handful of doctors, who are essentially office bearers of Maharashtra Association of Resident Doctors (MARD) joined work post 8pm.
Mahajan said that the government had agreed to accept their demands for providing security by appointing 1,100 security guards in government run hospitals and was confident that doctors would call off their strike. “We had a positive discussion with Maharashtra Association of Resident Doctors (MARD) representatives. The government has agreed to provide them security by recruiting 1,100 security guards in the next 15 days, after which they assured us that the strike will be withdrawn,” Mahajan said after having a meeting with representatives of resident doctors.
However, with only a partial call-off, the government started collecting data to initiate action against them. By Wednesday afternoon, the Government Medical Colleges (GMC) in Nagpur and Solapur, had already issued expulsion notices to 370 and 114 resident doctors respectively. Following suit, a total 500 resident doctors from KEM Hospital, 635 from LTMG Sion and 368 from BYL Nair Hospital in Mumbai were sent expulsion letters .
“As you failed to adhere to the show cause notice and join work, you are hereby expelled from your duty as a resident doctor with immediate effect. The office has started the procedure to cancel your post-graduate degree,” the notice read. Resident doctors, responding to the notices said that they will not accept the letters until their demands are met. “Students are disappointed after the HC verdict that has insulted the profession and our right to demand security. We will not accept the letters nor sign it until our demands are met,” said a resident doctor from KEM Hospital.