Today, February 12, a delegation of the Telangana Junior Doctors Association (T-JUDA) met the state Health Minister Damodar Raja Narasimha to discuss stipends, hostel facilities, faculty orders and others. Speaking to EdexLive, T-JUDA's newly elected President Dr CH G Sai Sri Harsha said, "We met the health minister and the meeting lasted for over two hours. We have discussed several issues with the minister and we have been asked to meet him again to share more details."
The four main important issues discussed in the meeting were:
Disbursement of stipends
Hostel facilities and District Residency Programme (DRP)
Faculty work orders
New building for Osmania General Hospital (OGH)
Giving more details, Harsha said, "The bills of first-year postgraduates who joined in September 2023 which were pending with the finance department have been cleared this afternoon." Meanwhile, he communicated with the Finance Secretary to ensure the immediate release of pending stipends and confirmed that efforts are underway to establish a green channel for stipends, which is expected to be operational within a month, a statement by the association read.
About the hostel facility, Harsha told EdexLive, "The number of postgraduate seats has been steadily increasing each year, however, the available hostel facilities are insufficient to accommodate them. If the upcoming batch of postgraduates enrol in the course, there won't be enough slots in the hostels to house them." Therefore, "The minister instructed us to compile a detailed report about the issues faced about the requirement of hostel facility at the necessary hospitals or colleges," Harsha said, adding that they will be meeting the minister after two days with the necessary details.
Another concern which was discussed was about the District Residency Programme (DRP). Explaining this, Harsha said, "Postgraduate students specializing in Biochemistry and Physiology from Gandhi Medical College and Kakatiya Medical Colleges were unexpectedly assigned to locations nearly 200km away from their respective colleges at GGH Jagityal and GGH Bhupalapally with a notice two days before the commencement of the DRP." Additionally, "they are being posted in medical colleges for teaching which is against the PGMER (Post-graduate Medical Education Regulations) guidelines which clearly states that they should be posted in 'District Hospitals' and for training purpose only."
When asked about a new building for Osmania General Hospital (OGH), Harsha told EdexLive that the minister assured that their team is actively working on it and soon the foundation stone will be laid.
