A flash strike by junior doctors in the King George’s Medical University (KGMU) in Lucknow has so far claimed the lives of 21 patients in the past three days.
A flash strike by junior doctors in the King George’s Medical University (KGMU) in Lucknow has so far claimed the lives of 21 patients in the past three days.
The patients have died either due to lack of medical care or because they were turned away from the KGMU, which is the biggest medical facility in the state capital.
KGMU vice-chancellor Prof. Ravikant said that efforts were being made to resolve the crisis and normalcy was expected to return in the next few hours. The junior doctors went on strike on Tuesday in protest against revision of the criteria for admission to post-graduate courses.
The junior resident doctors and MBBS graduates at KGMU are agitated over Uttar Pradesh government’s decision to cancel their admissions, made in April, to MD/MS/diploma courses and make fresh admissions by revising the merit list of the UP Postgraduate Medical Entrance Exam. Those given admission in April had already started working as junior resident doctors.
Some of them stand to lose their seats by the government decision which is based on an interim order of the Supreme Court that said up to 30 per cent of additional marks weightage be given to the doctors who have served in rural areas.
The protesters have stalled admissions through the revised merit list, demanding that the state government must wait for the hearing of their review petition by the Supreme Court.
According to reports, more than 2,000 patients have been turned away because of a shortage of doctors. More than two dozen surgeries scheduled for Wednesday had to be postponed.
UP governor Ram Naik has requested the doctors to come back to work on humanitarian grounds and had also asked the state government to break the impasse.
However, the government is yet to take an initiative in the matter. The spokesperson of the junior doctors’ association said that they were aware of the inconvenience being caused to patients but added that their entire careers were at stake in the matter.
