‘Parallel OPDs’ run at hospitals
As the “mass bunk agitation” of Maharashtra Association of Resident Doctors (Mard) entered its third day on Thursday, there were no signs of compromise to the standoff between the resident doctors and the government. In fact, on Thursday, the resident doctors ran a “parallel outpatient department (OPD)” at KEM and BYL Nair and Sion Hospitals right outside its premises.
Meanwhile, the government served notices of “expulsion” to the resident doctors across the state.
Coming down heavily on the resident doctors, the state government issued expulsion notices to 4,500 doctors across the state for participating in the indefinite mass bunk agitation. “If they fail to join work immediately, we will first expel them from the hostel and cancel their post-graduation registration,” said Vijay Kumar Gavit, state medical education minister. “We are prepared to evoke Maharashtra Emergency Services Maintenance Act (MESMA) also. Before they went on strike, we had agreed to majority of their demands and there is no need for further meetings with them,” said Mr Gavit.
Spokesperson of Mard, Dr Swapnil Kulkarni said, “On Thursday, we decided to run parallel OPDs because patients were being inconvenienced. We ran parallel OPDs outside all the three major hospital, KEM, Nair and Sion Hospitals. At KEM, we looked into 350 cases, 337 at Nair Hospital and 150 at Sion. In addition to this, we also conducted 77 blood tests for diabetes patients free of cost.”
At KEM Hospital, the “parallel OPD” ran at Bengal Club, which was offered to Mard, while at Nair they ran the OPD on the footpath. In another development on Thursday, the Mard wing of JJ Hospital also joined the “mass bunk agitation”
stating, “Our fellow doctors are being ill treated. They have been asked to vacate hostels which is why we have decided to join the strike and extend our support,” said Dr Avishkar Khandekar of JJ Hospital Mard.
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