MCD transfers senior docs of Hindu Rao plan to join protests

• Four senior doctors of NDMC-run Hindu Rao hospital get transferred. 
• Hindu Rao doctors on strike allege the transfers were a tactic to “curb the protests.”
• Jai Prakash, Mayor of NDMC, did not explain the timing of the transfers.

THD NewsDesk, New Delhi: Amidst protests staged by Hindu Rao doctors, four senior doctors planning to join the rest of their staff were transferred to Rajan Babu Institute of Pulmonary Medicine Tuberculosis (RBIPMT) on October 24. This decision was reported in a general body meeting held by the Municipal Corporation Doctors’ Association (MCDA) with the corporation-run Hindu Rao Hospital resident doctors. 

The transfer orders applicable with immediate effect came soon after the doctors decided to join the strike – allegedly a ploy to break the solidarity among protesting doctors.

“This has been done to curb our protest, which is turning into a mass movement. We are getting support from all the hospitals in Delhi, including AIIMS. However, such techniques would not shake our resolve to carve out a final solution to the recurring issue of salary delay,” stated Sagardeep Bawa, vice-president, RDA HRH.

Jai Prakash, Mayor of North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC), on being asked about the controversial timing of these transfers, said, “It’s a routine practice. Nothing to relate with their (senior doctors) decision to join the protest”.  

Considering the increased workload of medical staff during the pandemic, doctors from various hospitals in Delhi are demanding timely and full payment. Since October 23, resident doctors of HRH left with no other option, went on an indefinite hunger strike dissenting against non-payment of salaries for more than a year. Currently, five residents (doctors) observe the hunger strike at the hospital’s main gate, as Ambimanyu Sardana told the president of the RDA. After numerous letters to the authorities seeking the bare minimum remuneration remain unanswered, the doctors were compelled to stage protests. “Due to non-payment of salaries for three months, we have decided that if our demands are not resolved on an urgent basis, then our five residents would be going on indefinite hunger strike commencing from 4 pm today, i.e., October 23,” the letter from the RDA said.

Along with Hindu Rao, another MCD-run Kasturba Hospital and RBIPMT have also raised similar concerns. Doctors of Kasturba hospital are on strike for a week now. On October 22, the resident doctors could be seen together at Jantar Mantar, shouting slogans in the NDMC. 

Source: The Tribune