— Photo: Vivek Bendre

DUTY CONSCIOUS: A striking resident doctor manning the outpatients department for poor patients outside King Edward Memorial Hospital in Mumbai on Friday.

MUMBAI: Five days after relatives of patients attacked doctors in two incidents in the city, resident doctors in Mumbai have continued their strike in several municipal and government hospitals. There are reports of doctors in hospitals in the rest of Maharashtra also joining the strike.

The Government has invoked the Maharashtra Essential Services Maintenance Act and the Brihan-Mumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has sent notices to over 1,000 doctors. However, the doctors have not changed their stand and are likely to approach the Bombay High Court.

Members of the Maharashtra Association of Resident Doctors (MARD) met Minister for Medical Education Dilip Walse Patil and Public Health Minister Vimal Mundada on Friday but had refused to call off the strike.

Alternative healthcare?

Later speaking to the press, Mr. Walse Patil said the Government would not have any more discussion with the doctors. He said public hospitals were the backbone of healthcare and the services cannot be disrupted. The Government has asked for help from doctors in the Navy, private hospitals and other public health services. He said the Government would run all hospitals with help from these sections.

Resident doctors are registered with public hospitals for post-graduate degrees. Under this agreement, they cannot go on strike and there is a provision to deregister them, Mr. Walse Patil said. He had issued orders to the Director of Medical Education and Research to give notices to the striking doctors and take action against them. The Government had taken a progressive stand and the doctors should go back to work.

At a meeting on March 1, the Government agreed to consider a revision in stipend from about Rs. 8,000 a month now and take a decision within three months. The Medical Education Secretary had written to MARD stating that the Government would take a positive decision on the matter of stipend, after consulting authorities concerned and place it before the Cabinet in the next two months. It had also asked the doctors to get back to work by 10 a.m. on Friday.

Dr. Ajay Oswal, spokesperson for MARD, told The Hindu that the striking doctors had started outpatient departments in private rooms outside the public hospitals and at least 200 patients were treated outside the Sion hospital alone. He said the strike would not be called off and the doctors were ready to face any consequences.

The Minister agreed to MARD's demands but nothing was given in writing, he said. The Government only gave assurances on raising the stipend and other demands. MARD was demanding parity in the stipend of resident doctors.

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