New Delhi: Patient care was affected at multiple facilities in Delhi on Friday as resident doctors of three Centre-run and some of the city government-run hospitals resumed their agitation and boycotted all services, including emergency, over NEET-PG 2021 counselling delays.
Resident doctors at Ram Manohar Lohia, Safdarjung and Lady Hardinge hospitals said they resumed the strike as the government had allegedly made a "fake promise".
They pointed out the "acute shortage" of resident doctors across the country as the counselling of the NEET-PG 2021 batch has already been delayed by eight months.
Dr Akash Yadav, vice-president of the resident doctors' association at the Delhi
government-run Maulana Azad Medical College, said the stir was resumed in the morning, and all routine and emergency services have been boycotted.
Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan Hospital, GB Pant Hospital and the Guru Nanak Eye Centre are all attached with the Maulana Azad Medical College. LNJP is the biggest Delhi government-run medical facility in the city and the nerve centre of its fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.
On December 9, the resident doctors had said they were suspending the agitation, called by the Federation of Resident Doctors' Association (FORDA), for a week following the health ministry's assurance to expedite court hearing and subsequently fast-track the counselling process.
However, on Wednesday, FORDA wrote to Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya, informing him that it was resuming the strike from December 17 since the authorities have shown no inclination to understand the plight of the doctors.