Telangana: Healthcare services hit as junior doctors continue strike for second day

Protesting junior doctors say that so far the State government has not provided decisive assurances over their demands

Hyderabad: Maintaining that the State government has not taken any concrete measures to resolve the issues raised by them, the members of Telangana Junior Doctors Association (TJUDA) continued with their indefinite medical strike in teaching hospitals, which entered its second day on Tuesday.

After the failure of talks that were held on Monday between Health Minister, Damodar Raja Narasimha and medicos and later with Director of Medical Education (DME), Dr Vani, no fresh attempts were made by the health department on Tuesday to invite junior doctors to discuss the outstanding issues.

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On their part, the TJUDA members said that concrete and visible action to redress their grievances must be taken by the State government. The striking medicos said that out of the 8 issues that were raised by them, so far the State government has not addressed or permanently resolved even a single issue.

“How can we call-off the strike when not a single demand of ours has been fully addressed? For the moment, our boycott of medical duties will continue across all parts of Telangana,” says president, TJUDA, Dr Ch Sai Sri Harsha.

Meanwhile, to tide over the crisis of shortage of staff, the managements of government hospitals canceled leaves of health care workers and directed senior doctors from teaching side to take-up hospital duties. However, in the long-run, the stop-gap arrangements are not expected to be sustainable.

On Monday and Tuesday, the medicos boycotted outpatient (OP) services, elective surgeries and inpatient ward duties. While the medicos attended duties at emergency wards, the OP wings and bed-side health care services in recovering wards were managed by senior doctors. Over 350 elective surgeries have been postponed across all government hospitals in Hyderabad.