Junior doctors’ strike paralyzes healthcare in Telangana govt hospitals

Around 6,000 junior doctors of public hospitals in Telangana are on an indefinite strike since June 24 against what they say is an inordinate delay in the government meeting their demands. Bearing the brunt of the agitation are citizens, who find outpatient services in a disarray and non-emergency surgeries postponed.

The doctors have been standing outside hospital buildings, holding placards and chanting slogans. One of them—‘When no delay in treatment, why delay in stipends?’

“We gave the government enough time to address our demands. Most of these can be resolved within a day should the administration want,” said Dr G. Sai Sri Harsha, president of the Telangana Junior Doctors Association (T-JUDA).

Even if the government promises to credit stipends and issues an order to that effect, some protesting doctors argue that the strike will continue unless it is guaranteed that the money will be credited to doctors’ accounts on time every month. “This is why we are demanding the implementation of a green channel,” said Harsha.

On June 18, T-JUDA had served a notice to the Directorate of Medical Education for the strike, listing demands such as a green channel for timely stipend disbursement, honorarium of Rs 1.25 lakh for super-speciality senior residents, police deployment to prevent violence against doctors in hospitals, construction of new hostels, providing adequate faculty in medical colleges and building a new facility for the Osmania General Hospital in Hyderabad.

“The protracted delay in constructing the new Osmania General Hospital building necessitates urgent action to prevent overcrowding and improve patient care standards. We demand immediate laying of the foundation stone at the new site and allocation of a budget for the new hospital building,” said Harsha.

While claiming that services remained unaffected, hospital authorities have cancelled leaves of all faculty and inspection duties of professors and heads of departments to various medical colleges and hospitals in order to ensure that services to patients continue without disruption. Though state health minister C. Damodar Rajanarsimha has announced release of an additional budget of Rs 283.43 crore for 2024-25 to meet the expenditure towards honorarium and stipends and timely remittances, the protesting junior doctors want all their demands met at one go.

While the strike has impaired in-patient services at most government hospitals, the administrators are curtailing non-emergency services, including surgeries, as well as out-patient consultations. In some hospitals, authorities are planning to put in place measures to ensure patient care is not affected even if emergency services are blocked. For this, the duty rosters of non-clinical doctors are being revised and even those in charge of microbiology and pathology are being drawn for routine hospital work. Doctors involved only in teaching assignments have also been enlisted.

Hospital administrators conceded that these measures won’t be sustainable unless the strike is called off early. Junior doctors, who serve as frontline medical professionals in teaching hospitals such as Osmania General Hospital, Gandhi Medical College and Hospital and Kakatiya Medical College regularly interact with and attend to patients in hospital wards.

Meanwhile, coping with the challenges posed by the state’s financial distress, chief minister A. Revanth Reddy met Union health minister J.P. Nadda on June 25 to seek immediate release of Rs 693.13 crore worth of dues under the National Health Mission. However, for now, T-JUDA appears unlikely to withdraw the strike unless the government makes specific commitments on its demands. India Today