The residents of the Centre-run RML, Safdarjung and Lady Hardinge hospitals will boycott all routine and emergency services from Monday in support of a nationwide protest called by the Federation of Resident Doctors' Association FORDA against the delay in NEET-PG 2021 counselling.
In a letter to Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya, the FORDA said healthcare institutions across the country are not having an adequate workforce of resident doctors, with no admission in the current academic year.
With the possibility of future COVID 19 pandemic wave looming large, the situation will be catastrophic for the healthcare sector with its bearing on the country's population, it has said.
There seems to be no initiative or measure taken yet for expediting NEET-PG counselling. After discussions with various RDA representatives in Delhi, we decided to escalate our agitation further and withdraw all services routine and emergency in healthcare institutions from Monday, the letter read.
The RDA of Ram Manohar Lohia RML hospital said residents are on a peaceful protest for almost a week now, because of the delay in NEET-PG counselling and admission of first-year junior residents to various hospitals.
The routine services of the OPD were suspended from November 27 and December 3 as a result of the RDA's suspension of the OPD services.
It said that we have not received any positive response or concrete action from the Union Ministry of Health and the authorities concerned.
Similar letters have been written by the RDAs of the Safdarjung and Lady Hardinge hospitals.
The Safdarjung hospital RDA said it continued a symbolic protest in a silent manner after meeting with the Union health minister on November 27, respecting the verbal assurance given by him. As per the notification released on November 30, the Ministry of Social Justice has asked for a period of three weeks to submit its report to the Supreme Court, which is not consistent with the verbal assurance given to us regarding expediting the process.
Due to non-responsiveness and indifference of the government and the authorities, we are left with no other option than boycotting the emergency services from Monday.
The RDA said that the onus of any unfortunate incident arising due to the circumstances affecting the healthcare will be on the authorities concerned.