Bhopal: Senior consultants went on strike at People’s Hospital on Monday as a mark of protest against non-payment of salaries from January. The doctors struck work for a couple of hours in the morning, leaving the management high and dry in pandemic times.
When private hospitals are hiding behind the plea that they have to pay two to three time more salary to doctors in these pandemic times for “overcharging” Covid patients, such an incident comes as a real shocker.
During the protest hours, junior doctors were pressed into service to take care of Covid patients in the Covid wards. The protest lasted just a couple of hours, so, it did not create any major chaos at the hospital.
Hospital sources said that the strike created a sensation on the campus as, in these pandemic times, if doctors start protesting, it sends out a wrong signal on the hospital campus. The hospital management immediately took a prompt decision and settled the issue. Other issues are still pending, but the salary issue has been settled and doctors resumed their work after a couple of hours.
‘Prompt decision’
“They’re senior consultants who went on strike today to press their demands — payment of pending salaries. From January, their salaries have been pending and they had been told that their dues would be cleared by May 9. After the payment was not made, they came out on the campus and raised slogans. However, the management immediately settled the issue and the consultants resumed duty,” said Dr Sankul Dwivedi, general secretary, Indian Medical Association.
