MUMBAI: Black flag marches in all government and municipal hospitals in Maharashtra and Mumbai by resident doctors on strike marked the ninth day of protest. The Indian Medical Association (IMA) has sent a letter to the Chief Minister asking the government to intervene and end the strike.

Additional Municipal Commissioner Vijaysinh Patankar said termination orders had been given to 348 doctors in all the 24 municipal hospitals but no one had been evicted from their quarters. He clarified that show cause notices had been sent to all the resident doctors in the municipal hospitals; 1,314 are registered as post graduate students. The remaining 736 are unregistered. All doctors except 150 who are reporting to work were on strike, he added.

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has recruited 16 new doctors so far. It said services in the hospitals had improved with about 12,000 out patients on Tuesday. All emergency services were functioning, Mr. Patankar said. After the strike started, the number of out patients had dropped to 7,000. "We are trying to make efforts to bring it back to the normal figure of 18,000 to 19,000 out patients a day," he said. Doctors from the Navy and government health services from rural areas were helping out in public hospitals and some 50 more doctors are expected to be added on Wednesday.

Support for stir

The Maharashtra Association of Resident Doctors (MARD) has got support from various quarters. Dr. Suhas Pingle, secretary, IMA, Maharashtra, which has about 20,000 registered medical practitioners as members, told The Hindu that attacks on doctors were on the rise in the last few years and nowhere had the culprits been brought to book. He said that Dr. Vasant Jaykar was shot dead in his private clinic in Khar about five years ago and the case was closed. There were other instances too when doctors had been attacked.

The strike by MARD was provoked by doctors in two Mumbai hospitals being attacked. Dr. Pingle said, earlier, women had not been targeted but this time, even they were not spared. He said resident doctors worked round-the-clock without fixed duty hours.

Their living conditions were abysmal and often they had poor basic facilities.

He said that since 1995, the government had reduced the number of post-graduate registrations and as a result the workload had increased.

Also, their stipend was poor compared to other States.

The IMA felt that the government had taken drastic action this time and was not bothered about negotiations. It urged it to resolve the long-pending demands of the resident doctors.

The IMA will express solidarity with the doctors initially by wearing black badges but it may even go on strike if necessary.

The Nurses Federation of Maharashtra has also supported the strike, according to MARD president, Shrikant Pandit.

High Court defends action

UNI reports from Nagpur:

The Nagpur Bench of the Bombay High Court on Tuesday defended the Maharashtra Government's action against the striking resident doctors and dismissed a petition seeking expulsion of the agitating doctors. A Division Bench comprising Justice Dilip Sinha and Justice R.C. Chavan said the Government was dealing with the striking doctors in a proper way and dismissed the petition.

The court also defended the Government's action in serving termination notices on the doctors.

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