Resident docs at AIIMS to go hungry but continue working

New Delhi: About 2,000 resident doctors of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) will go hungry from today in protest against the “improper implementation” of the seventh central pay commission’s recommendations, but continue working.

The resident doctors who had on October 24 held a protest have also sought the prime minister’s intervention in the issue. “We have remained silent for a long time, hoping for a response from the Health Ministry. But there has been a complete lack of constructive steps taken by the ministry.

“Being a responsible citizen and a doctor we will not hamper the facilities for patients. In our further action to put our demands forward we will work continuously without consuming food,” former AIIMS Resident Doctors Association (RDA) president Dr Vijay Kumar said.

In a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the AIIMS RDA said even one-and-half-years after the implementation of the seventh CPC recommendations and four months of allowance approval in other medical institutes, the AIIMS doctors here still did not get the revised pay because of the administrative lapses.

“Even after four months of the implementation of the revised allowances at the central government institutes like the Safdarjung Hospital, RML Hospital and other autonomous medical institutes like the PGI Chandigarh, we are still awaiting a nod from the Health Ministry for getting it implemented here at the AIIMS,” AIIMS RDA president Harjit Singh Bhatti said in the letter.

He claimed that when they approached the hospital administration, it said the ministry was not giving approval and when they visited the ministry they were told that it would take a long time. The resident doctors threatened to go on a strike next month, if their demands were not met.

He said the resident doctors at the AIIMS were forced to work “tediously” for more than the “mandated 48 hours” in a week but were not getting their rightful due because of the bureaucratic hurdles. In their letter, the RDA said the implementation of seventh CPC would help them to carry out their work related to patient care with more zeal and enthusiasm.