It has been almost two weeks since resident doctors across the country have been protesting due to the delay in the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) PG counselling. Among those protesting are the resident doctors of BJ Medical College, Ahmedabad, which is affiliated to the Gujarat government's Civil Hospital. But it seems that the protest has caused trouble for the doctors. A Head of the Department (HOD) at Civil Hospital, has allegedly asked the resident doctors to stop the protest and get back to their duties. If the resident doctors don't return to their duties, their results in the upcoming exams will be impacted, he said.
Speaking to Edexlive, Civil Hospital resident Dr Dhruv Patel, who was present at the protest site, claimed, "The HOD forced the third-year resident doctors to sign written consent letters stating that they will join their duties and not protest or join the student union." According to him, the third-year students were called to the department and threatened by the HOD. "He threatened to not sign their dissertations, which would not allow them to sit for the exams, if they did not resume their duties," said Patel. Patel has completed his graduation and post-graduation from BJ Medical College.
However, this was short-lived as after an all-night protest on December 8, the Medical Superintendent of the hospital assured the students that their protests will not impact their exams. Patel said, "The third-year students informed the Medical Superintendent about the threat from the HOD. He assured the students that their exams will not be affected if they choose to join the protest." Patel said that the protest will continue until there's an official notification about the recruitment of junior resident doctors. The HOD has remained out of reach and did not comment on these allegations.
The incident at Civil Hospital in Ahmedabad is among several that have taken place over the last couple of weeks when resident doctors across the country began protesting, citing increased and inhumane workload. Owing to the delay in the NEET-PG counselling, there's a dearth of at least 45,000 junior resident doctors in the country's healthcare system.
The delay was initially caused due to the deadly second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in India, which pushed the exams to September. However, the present delay has been caused due to the plea filed in the Supreme Court to determine the eligibility criteria of the Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) category for government jobs and admission in educational institutions, which includes NEET-PG's All India Quota.
