Amid The Spike In COVID-19 Cases In Delhi, Unpaid Doctors To Go On Mass Leave, Hunger Strike

Senior doctors of hospitals under the North Delhi Municipal Corporation threatened to go on mass casual leave on Monday and an indefinite strike from Tuesday, as they step up their protests demanding their pending salaries.

In a statement issued on Saturday, the Municipal Corporation Doctors' Association (MCDA) said it has already has given sufficient time to concerned authorities to resolve the issue and pay the salaries, "but they have not done anything to solve the problem, and instead appear to be unconcerned with the plight of doctors".

BCCL

MCDA, an association of senior permanent doctors of the civic hospitals, was established in 1974, and has about 1,200 members.

It had also threatened to go on an indefinite strike from October 19, but had later decided to defer the strike in "public interest".

As salaries of seniors doctors have not been paid even after lapse of one week of deferring the strike, this association was forced to reconsider its earlier decision, and accordingly an emergency General Body Meeting (GBM) was held on Saturday morning at Hindu Rao Hospital, its general secretary Maruti Sinha said.

AFP

"The first decision taken in the GBM was mass casual leave by all senior doctors of NDMC on Monday. And, total strike for indefinite period of all senior doctors from Tuesday, if salaries of all doctors, including resident doctors are not? released by Monday, and if a permanent solution found, like handing over MCD health services to Central government, is not decided," the MCDA statement said.

Meanwhile, the resident doctors of Hindu Rao Hospital, run by the North Delhi Municipal Corporation, started their indefinite hunger strike from Friday evening after the authorities failed to meet their demands.

BCCL

Resident doctors of Hindu Rao Hospital and Kasturba Hospital, both under the NDMC had been protesting for weeks now demanding their overdue salaries of the past three months.

The protesting doctors claimed that their salaries used to be irregular for a long time, but the situation has turned worse in the past few months.

The doctors' protest comes at a time when the COVID-19 cases in the national capital are rising again.

BCCL

Over the past few days, the number of COVID-19 cases has been spiking and it is likely to go up further in the coming days.

In the past 24 hours, Delhi has seen 4,116 new COVID-19 infections taking the tally so far to 352520.

?Delhi Health Bulletin - 24th October 2020?#DelhiFightsCorona pic.twitter.com/mipY3Ylszd

¡ª CMO Delhi (@CMODelhi) October 24, 2020

With the festival season just around the corner, there is a growing fear that the COVID-19 cases in Delhi will shoot up, crippling the already stretched health infrastructure.