Telangana junior doctors serve strike notice over pending issues

The Telangana Junior Doctors Association has served a strike notice over delays in stipend payments and several other pending issues. Junior doctors also flagged infrastructure deficiencies, hostel shortages, staff vacancies, duty-hour concerns and inadequate security at medical colleges.

Hyderabad: The Telangana Junior Doctors Association (T-JUDA), representing junior doctors across the State, on Friday served a strike notice to Director of Medical Education (DME) Dr S Vani, announcing a boycott of all medical duties over a host of long-pending issues.

The core and most contentious issue raised by junior doctors is the repeated delay in stipend payments. “We have been demanding a permanent mechanism to ensure timely disbursement of stipends from the beginning of every month and stipend revision reflecting our workload and clinical responsibilities,” T-JUDA said.

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The association, in the strike notice, highlighted multiple critical challenges impacting postgraduates, super-specialty PGs, house surgeons and undergraduates across the State.

Apart from stipends, T-JUDA also raised the issue of severe infrastructure deficiencies, inadequate hostel facilities and critical shortages of teaching and non-teaching staff across peripheral medical colleges. The junior doctors called for the immediate filling of vacant posts and implementation of the Medical College Monitoring Committee (MCMC) mechanism.

“Concerns were raised regarding congested casualty and emergency spaces, delays in essential emergency medicines, and the lack of 24-hour laboratory services at tertiary-care centres,” the association said.

The strike notice also called for proper regulation of duty hours for PGs and interns, a guaranteed weekly off, post-duty rest periods and clear demarcation of duties to prevent excessive workloads.

T-JUDA demanded enhanced security protocols, especially in casualty and emergency zones, and strict enforcement of laws against violence targeting healthcare workers.

“Despite previous representations and meetings, several issues remain unresolved. We urge the authorities to take urgent, time-bound action to prevent a statewide strike,” T-JUDA said.