DTMT Network
The health authorities in the national capital, Delhi, pressed the panic buttons as the Resident Doctors of Delhi's Hindu Rao Hospital threatened mass suicide as they were having a very tough time with their three months' salary having not been paid.

The doctors said that they were contemplating the extreme step since they were finding it difficult to run their houses, and even to pay the school fees of their children.

In quick response, the Additional Commissioner of Police of the area, accompanied by a large posse of police personnel, parked themselves at the hospital to prevent any such step by the doctors. The police maintained that an attempt to commit suicide was an offense. They said that the doctors should have approached the cops rather than the media with their plight.

The top officials of the Municipal Corporation, which runs this hospital, held talks with the Resident Doctors, in an attempt to ward off any crisis. The doctors were on a three hour pen down strike, and the attempt was to end this strike first. But the Corporation's top guns did not have anything to offer. They did not have the funds with which the salary of the doctors could be paid and the situation could be resolved.

When there was no hope of the salary payment, the doctors decided to intensify their agitation and to go in for a complete shut down of the healthcare services in the hospital, including emergency services, from Monday.

However, the officials did not bother much about the strike, or the suffering of the patients because of this. They were more interested in stopping any extreme step by the doctors, which would show the administration in a very poor light.

It may be noted that depression due to poor working conditions and other reasons has led to suicides by several doctors in Delhi, and the threat by the Resident Doctors of Hindu Rao hospital to end their lives if their salaries are not paid should not be taken as an empty threat.

The best way out would be for the Central Government to intervene in the matter asap and see to it that the salaries are paid and a worsening situation is resolved in the interest of both doctors and patients.