Chennai: Protests by resident doctors set to continue against delay in NEET postgraduate counselling – Times of India

Chennai News

CHENNAI: Resident doctors of medical college hospitals will be withdrawing outpatient services for the second consecutive day on Thursday as part of a protest against delay in NEET postgraduate (PG) counselling.
In response, the state health department officials claimed that they have adequate number of doctors in reserve to ensure that people do not suffer because of these protests. Over 500 PG doctors, who have already completed their course, and 2,100 MBBS doctors (contract), will manage Covid-19 and other emergencies, said a senior official from the department.
The protesting doctors, however, clarified that their intention was not to cause any hindrance to the public but that they were left with no other choice to force the union government to look into their demands.
Resident doctors have been requesting the government to conduct the NEET PG counselling and admission process soon so that a new batch of doctors can join them. Without juniors, the current batch of resident doctors (second year) is working up to 18 hours a day without breaks.
Right from handling patients at outpatient wards to preparing case sheets and assisting surgeries, a majority of the work is done by resident doctors. Most of them are already under severe stress and it could get worse if the new Covid-19 variant starts to spread here, said R Vignesh from Tamil Nadu Resident Doctors’ Association.
“We want the government to conduct the counselling soon so that we have an adequate workforce of resident doctors. Till then, we will continue our protests,” he said.
The protests are happening not only at 28 medical college hospitals in Tamil Nadu but across the country, with most PG resident doctors having withdrawn their services from outpatient departments. The union government had told the Supreme Court that it postponed the counselling by four weeks as it was reconsidering the 8 lakh criteria for Economically Weaker Section (EWS) seats.
Doctors from some of the other Indian states have announced that they will be withdrawing from all routine services if the government does not meet their demands.

Source: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chennai/chennai-protests-by-resident-doctors-set-to-continue-against-delay-in-neet-postgraduate-counselling/articleshow/88040656.cms