Frontline COVID Doctors Are Protesting Over Unpaid Salaries, They Were Last Paid In June

Doctors of the north municipal corporation-run Hindu Rao Hospital have launched an online campaign protesting against unpaid salaries.

Hindu Rao, which is the biggest hospital of North MCD and currently a COVID-19 designated facility, has failed to pay pending dues to its staff for 106 days now.

Twitter

As a part of the campaign, the protesting doctors posted a picture where a doctor on COVID-19 duty wearing PPE overalls stood with a placard that read ¡ª ¡®Doctors on Covid duty, Unpaid Day 106, Hindu Rao Hospital Delhi¡¯ ¡ª on their social media, starting Monday. The day tally will be updated regularly. They will also post pictures related to problems they face due to non-payment of salaries.

Doctors on COVID duty at Delhi¡¯s Hindu Rao hospital, not paid salary for 3 months, protest against North MCD administration. As they take protest online, will regularly post pictures with such texts¡ª ¡®Doctors on Covid duty, Unpaid Day... day will be updated. @IndianExpress pic.twitter.com/UsSyMQZy2s

¡ª Abhinav Rajput (@Abhinavrt) September 29, 2020 " target="_blank">

Doctors on COVID duty at Delhi¡¯s Hindu Rao hospital, not paid salary for 3 months, protest against North MCD administration. As they take protest online, will regularly post pictures with such texts¡ª ¡®Doctors on Covid duty, Unpaid Day... day will be updated. @IndianExpress pic.twitter.com/UsSyMQZy2s

¡ª Abhinav Rajput (@Abhinavrt) September 29, 2020

The pictures have been shared widely and have created an uproar on social media platform Twitter.

Doctors threaten full-fledged strike

According to the hospital¡¯s Residents Doctors Association (RDA), they were last paid on June 15 after they moved court over delayed wages. The doctors have threatened to stall work or go on a full-fledged strike from next month if they are not paid their dues by this month.

A senior technician on the condition of anonymity has said, "Not just doctors, even the technical staff, including nurses, cleaning staff and lab workers haven't received salaries for over 3 months despite continuous protests."

File - Inhouse digital

Staff not attending non-emergency patients

Meanwhile, the doctors of the hospital are on another pen-down strike for three hours every day since the past week over the long delay of payments. They do not attend to non-emergency patients and make reports between 9 am and 12 pm in the day to register their protest.

Nurses and doctors in other hospitals and health facilities run by the North MCD are also holding protests over salary delay. Hindu Rao, Maharishi Valmiki, Kasturba Hospital, Girdhari Lal Maternity Hospital and Rajan Babu Institute, in addition to 21 dispensaries, 63 maternity and child welfare centres, 17 polyclinics and 7 maternity homes, all fall under the North MCD.

File photo: Inhouse

Earlier, the Resident Doctors¡¯ Association of the Kasturba Gandhi hospital had threatened to tender their mass resignations by June 16, due to non-payment of their salaries.

SC asked authorities to pay doctors

In a hearing in June, taking note of instances of non-payment of salary to doctors treating COVID-19 patients, the Delhi High Court had ordered immediate payment of outstanding salaries to doctors which have been pending since March 2020.

The Supreme Court, too, had told the Centre in June that the country cannot afford to have ¡°dissatisfied soldiers in the war against the pandemic" and asked authorities to go the extra mile to raise funds for them.