Rohit Shishodia
Except the doctors of the Guru Tegh Bahadur Hospital, the resident doctors working in Delhi government-run hospitals have ended their strike after getting written assurances from officials of the health department for payment of salary as per 7th Central Pay Commission recommendations.

Around eight hundred doctors of University College of Medical Sciences (UCMS), which is attached with GTBH, continued their strike as their demands for implementing 7th CPC remained unfulfilled. The UCMS’ doctors told DTMT that University Grant Commission is yet to approve the 7th CPC for resident doctors.

“We will continue our strike till UCMS approves 7th CPC for us. We are going to discuss the matter with officials of UGC.  Leave aside the salary, they are yet to pay us the arrears. There are many loopholes in this process. All doctors except GTBH will get salary as per new CPC but we would not due to discrepancies in payment of salary among all doctors. There should be a common mode of payment of salary,” explained the doctors sitting in the RDA room in the GTB Hospital.       

The patients were at the receiving end. They were left disappointed as they came to the hospital from distant areas of Delhi and other states. A patient who came from Tikri village in North Delhi told DTMT that he came to the hospital for treatment of his wife suffering from neurological disease.

“I spent Rs 200 in fare while my factory owner deducted Rs 500 for leave. Yet, my wife did not get the treatment. Our entire day and daily wage was wasted for no fault of ours. Who cares for us? No one,” said Sultan, the patient's husband.

Dr Sumedh Sandhanshiv, President, FORDA-India, said, “We ended the strike in the afternoon in view of patient care and written assurance of implementing 7th CPC. Issue of UCMS is yet to be resolved. We will meet HRD minister Mr Prakash Javadekar to discuss the issue.”