The Telangana Government, today, December 19, assured the state’s junior doctors that their demands of regular disbursement of stipends will be addressed.

The Telangana Junior Doctors Association (TJUDA) met the state Health Minister Damodar Raja Narasimha along with the Director of Medical Education (DME) and Senior Resident Doctors Association (SRDA) on December 18, today, in order to discuss the issue of stipend delay.

“Our primary demand was regular disbursal of stipends. We were assured that a green channel would be created  to regularise stipends and stipends would be credited by 15th of every month. The DME informed us that a software will also be released within 20 days to make the process easier,” informed the president of T-JUDA, Dr Kaushik Kumar Pinjarala .

The association has staged several strikes urging the government to regularise their stipends. The resident doctors alleged that in the past, their stipends were cleared because of continuous and repeated follow-ups and pressure mounted on the concerned authorities every month.

After receiving assurances from the government, the association called off their ongoing strike due to the delay in the disbursement of stipends for second and third-year junior residents. 

Other assurances

Apart from irregular stipends, the state’s resident doctors had also highlighted the poor state of infrastructure at the Osmania General Hospital in their letter to the Health Minister dated December 19.

The association informed that the authorities took their concerns positively and assured that the government is committed to a new building for Osmania Hospital. It was further added that new hostels will be constructed for PG doctors in order to address the concerns about inadequate hostel facilities.

Another major concern that the association had raised was increasing stress on the doctors' fraternity due to long working hours and hectic schedules. Regarding this, the authorities assured that a committee will be constituted to frame necessary guidelines for the working hours of interns and PG doctors.