T’PURAM: The strike by the postgraduate medical students has been called off partially following talks they had with health minister Veena George on Wednesday night. However, they will continue to boycott non-emergency duties.
The functioning of medical college hospitals has come back to normalcy after PG students started attending duties from Thursday morning.
Meanwhile, talks the health department had scheduled with the agitating students on Thursday did not happen. “The minister has responded positively to our grievances. She also expressed difficulties in increasing the number of non-resident junior doctors due to lack of funds. However, she has agreed to have further discussions on this,’’ said Dr Ajithra, president of the state committee of Kerala medical postgraduate association.
George has also assured us that a committee would be formed to ensure whether the residents’ manual is strictly followed. This was being done as we had complained about the exhaustive duty hours of junior resident doctors, she added.
The association has given a memorandum to the chief minister urging to sanction funds to appoint more non-resident junior doctors to reduce the manpower shortage.
Meanwhile, Dr Ajithra has alleged that the secretariat staff misbehaved with her when she had come to meet the health officials for talks on Thursday morning. She protested against this by staging a dharna before the Secretariat and later she lodged a complaint with the police against the staff.
