NEET-PG counselling row: Resident doctors resume protest over delay and ‘fake promises’ by Centre
The doctors have ceased all Out Patient Department (OPD) services in the three hospitals and will only attend to emergency services.
FollowNew Delhi: Around 5000 Resident doctors from almost all major hospitals in Delhi including Safdarjung, GTB, Lok Nayak, Ram Manohar Lohia resumed their strike against the delay in NEET-PG (National Eligibility cum Entrance Test Postgraduate) counselling and admission process, on Friday. Due to this, emergency and OPD services at Safdarjung, RML, Guru Teg Bahadur, and Lok Nayak hospitals in the national capital were impacted.
“They always give verbal assurance of expediting counselling; it's been delayed 3-4 times already. We repeatedly demand the counselling schedule,” Gen Secy-Resident Doctors Assn, Dr Prateek Goyal, told ANI.
The doctors have ceased all Out Patient Department (OPD) services in the three hospitals and will only attend to emergency services.
They pointed out the "acute shortage" of resident doctors across the country as the counselling of NEET PG 2021 batch has already been delayed by eight months.
On 9 December, the resident doctors had said they were suspending the agitation, called by the Federation of Resident Doctors' Association (FORDA), for a week following the health ministry's assurance to expedite court hearing and subsequently fast-track the counselling process.
However, on Wednesday, FORDA wrote to Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya informing him that it was resuming the strike.
In fact, on Monday, 6 December, the Federation of Resident Doctors' Association (FORDA) had written a letter to Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya, where it had indicated that healthcare institutions across the country were struggling due to a lack of adequate workforce of resident doctors, with no admissions being granted for the current academic year.
The NEET exams were scheduled for May but were postponed to September due to the second wave of Covid-19. There has been a delay in the counselling and admission of the new batch of doctors due to the Centre's decision in July 2021 to give 10% reservation to the students from Economically Weaker Sections (EWS), setting the income limit to Rs 8 lakh per annum for such candidates. The Supreme Court, however, had expressed doubt over the limit set by the Centre.
