Telangana, District Residency Programme: Junior doctors' strike on hold as authorities give assurance

Junior doctors have been promised a stipend hike in 20 days, arrangement of food and accommodation facilities for the District Residency Programme 
Here are the details | (Pic: EdexLive)Telangana
Here are the details | (Pic: EdexLive)Telangana

Postgraduate Resident Doctors of Telangana have decided to call off their strike for 20 days after the Director of Medical Education, Dr K Ramesh Reddy, gave them assurance that their issues regarding the District Residency Programme (DRP) will be addressed.

Under the DRP, resident doctors from all medical colleges are required to undergo a training programme for three months, during which, they have to serve at a district hospital.

The junior doctors had complained that they were not being provided food, accommodation and travel expenses for the programme despite the National Medical Commission (NMC) issuing guidelines to that effect. In a few districts where these facilities were being provided, they were not up to the mark. Without proper accommodation facilities, many junior doctors travel for more than 100 kilometres every day, they added.

However, on Monday, April 10, the Telangana Junior Doctors' Association (T-JUDA) met the Director of Medical Education and have been assured that their demands will be addressed.

“We have been told that a revised order will be released for the District Residency Programme and those of us from the first batch will be posted closer to our college to avoid the excessive commute. For the second batch, they will be making arrangements for our food and accommodations. We have demanded that they transfer us to other districts only when the accommodations have been made,” explained Dr Kaushik Kumar Pinjarala, President of T-JUDA.

The resident doctors had also voiced out the necessity of a hike in their stipend which was due on January 1 this year. About this, the Director of Medical Education gave an oral assurance to the doctors that a hike in stipend will be initiated in 15-20 days.

“On the basis of these assurances, we have decided to call off the strike for 20 days and would resort back to it if the issues are not resolved soon,” added Pinjarala.

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