312 DOCS BACK TO WORK AFTER CM THREATENS LEGAL ACTION

The healthcare crisis in Maharashtra seemed to have improved, but only slightly, on Friday night, after 312 of the 2,000-odd striking resident doc tors joined work after a meeting with chief minister Devendra Fadnavis. The Bombay HC on Friday has given the remaining doctors a day more to resume duties. They have been told to join work by 8am on Saturday.

“What more do you wan when the CM of a state, with folded hands, is requesting you to resume your work?” asked Parthiv Sanghvi, secretary of the Indian Medical Association (IMA) and six other major bodies that met Fadnavis on Friday.

Just hours earlier, Fadnavis in the Assembly, had called the striking doctors’ behaviour ‘unfortunate and immature’.

“Enough is enough. Now, the government can’t sit quiet. We are not elected to leave patients to die. Despite accepting all the demands, the doctors are no ready to withdraw their strike They are forcing us to take a harsh step,” Fadnavis said.

The CM said they have accepted all the demands tha include hiring of 1,100 security guards to be deployed at govern ment hospitals in the next 15 days. “Even after that, if they do not resume work, the state wil initiate legal action agains them,” Fadnavis said.

A section of resident doctors however, alleged the IMA pulled out of the protest because of per sonal gains and they are going to continue until they see some results on the ground level.