‘Enough is enough, get to work or face action’ 312 of the 2,000 protesting docs get back to duty

A total of 312 of the 2,000 resident doctors on strike joined work late on Friday, according to numbers with the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). But the rest, defying the call by doctors’ associations to end the protest, have decided to continue their agitation.

The Indian Medical Association (IMA) and six other major bodies representing doctors, which pulled out of the strike on Friday after meeting chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, termed it as an ‘unfortunate and immature behaviour’ on part of the resident doctors.

“What more do you want when the CM of a state, with folded hands, is requesting you to resume your work?” asked Parthiv Sanghvi, secretary of IMA. The body with over 40,000 members who are doctors in Maharashtra, had continued to support the protests after the Maharashtra Association of Resident Doctors (MARD) pulled out of the protest late on Thursday.

“The meeting with Fadnavis was positive and he patiently listened to us for an hour. He has accepted all the demands and informed us about the plan of action,” said Dr Sanghvi, adding that they have got more than what they demanded.

A section of resident doctors alleged that IMA pulled out from the protest because of personal gains and they are going to continue until they see some results on the ground level. “We started the protest, not IMA or MARD. The state has made many assurances in the past and none of them were fulfilled,” said a resident doctor from KEM hospital.

However, many of those who participated in the protest, con tinued to work in the wards, to ensure patients are not inconven ienced. Dr Mukesh Agarwal head of the paediatric depart ment of KEM Hospital, said that students in his unit, who are also a part of the protest, have pre pared their own schedule. “They aren’t signing on the musters, but one of them comes for a round every hour and checks on patients,” said Dr Agarwal.

Services in the hospitals remained affected due to the strike, however no untoward incident took place since the emergency wards were working round the clock. The 1,800-bed KEM Hospital, Parel — the larg est public hospital in the city — which handles 4,500-6,000 out patient ward (OPD) cases daily checked 254 patients on Friday while the OPDS in LTMG, Sion and BYL Nair Hospital, Mumba Central, remained closed due to the mass bunk.