Undeterred with the threatening status of COVID-19 which has put the State Government and local administration in serious concern and dilemma, the junior doctors of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose Medical College and Hospital (NSCBMCH) detached themselves from the routine OPD works on Tuesday. Though they ran parallel OPD for patients in the open premise but the patients who were already in bad health, had to face hard time due to scorching summer.

 

Though the junior doctors ran a parallel OPD to justify their stand and display their ‘concern’ for the poor patients, the senior officers of Department of Medical Education and Jabalpur Medical College Management deeply criticised the timing and the way adopted by the junior doctors to force the government to fulfill their demands at this time of medical emergency. According to the higher officers, the junior doctors have chosen the worse time to stage their protest for their demands. At this time when COVID-19 touches it’s peak across the country and the patients desperately needed their services, their detachment from routine OPD would intensify the patients’ pain and problems. The junior doctors were angry after continuous delay in payment of their stipend and incentive amount for their services since first wave of COVID-19.

 

While talking with ‘The Hitavada’, President, Junior Doctor Association (JuDA) Jabalpur, Dr Pankaj Singh claimed that “The junior doctors didn’t want patients to suffer due to betrayal of the higher authorities and the State Government. Hence, we ran a parallel OPD, now it’s turn for the State Government to do justice with us by fulfilling our genuine demands for stiffen and incentive amounts. Our repeated demands for stipend and incentive were unheard by the authorities since long, hence we left with no option other than going for non-cooperation mode.