‘No duty if arrears are not cleared’

MUMBAI: Resident doctors of civic-run hospitals in the city, who have not received an additional stipend for almost nine months, have threatened to not take part in Covid-19 services if their arrears are not cleared soon.

On Friday, #BMCbetrayedus and #BetrayedStillWorking trended on Twitter as resident doctors took to social media to register their protest against the non-payment of stipend and arrears. In a statement released Wednesday, the Mumbai chapter of the Maharashtra Association of Resident Doctors (MARD) said that doctors will shut down Covid services in the next seven days if the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) does not release the stipend.

“We do not want to stop our services to Covid-19 patients. We are hoping and trying that it doesn’t come to that. We are putting up posters at the hospitals and making our voices heard as we continue our work,” said Arun Ghule, president, MARD, Mumbai.

From May 2020 till January this year, over 3,000 resident doctors of the four BMC-run hospitals—KEM, Sion, Nair and Cooper—were paid ₹10,000 a month. It was then discontinued as Covid-19 cases started to go down. In September, the government announced a hike of ₹10,000 in the stipend for resident doctors, however, the civic body released a circular regarding the stipend only in March.

When doctors demanded the arrears for the stipend hike, they said the BMC informed them that the arrears were adjusted against the ₹10,000 paid to them last year during the first Covid-19 wave. “This is unfair, especially since doctors have been working non-stop, risking their lives during the pandemic,” said Ghule.

MARD claimed that the arrears for each doctor amount to ₹1.2 lakh. Despite repeated attempts,

TP Lahane, medical education director, said the matter was in the jurisdiction of BMC. However, Suresh Kakani, additional municipal commissioner, health, did not respond to calls or messages, despite repeated attempts.

The Maharashtra State Association of resident Doctors has also extended its support to the doctors in Mumbai. “This tragedy is greater than the pandemic itself for the resident doctors. The government has finally found scapegoats to hide their failures in the resident doctors,” said the association in a statement on Friday. Meanwhile, doctors have stormed social media with their pleas for arrears.