Telangana senior resident doctors, who boycotted medical services from Wednesday, called off the strike on Saturday evening. They had been demanding pending salaries and stipend, and sought clarity regarding date of completion of senior residency.
Telangana Senior Resident Doctors’ Association (TSRDA) members said they had discussed the demands with Health Minister T. Harish Rao and Director of Medical Education (DME) K. Ramesh Reddy, who had positively considered the demands.
A batch of 698 Senior Resident (SR) doctors are working at 29 government hospitals. One year work at government hospitals after completion of postgraduation (PG) is called as Senior Residency. The medicos who started their PG from May 2018 have completed the course in April 2021.
Since the second wave of COVID pandemic was at peak during this time, the government continued their services till August 15, as per Telangana Senior Resident Doctors Association (TSRDA) members. This batch started to work as senior resident doctors from November-2021.
As SRs, they were supposed to receive salary of ₹80,500 per month. However, SRs working at three hospitals did not receive the salaries for three months, those in two hospitals did not receive it for five months, and the rest did not get the salaries for two to three months. Besides, they said the stipend for the month of May-2021 was not paid.
Demanding the pending salaries and stipends, they boycotted elective duties from Wednesday and emergency duties from Friday. During the protest held at government hospitals, the doctors wanted to know if the work in June to August 15 would be considered as Senior Residency.
After speaking to the Health Minister and the DME, the association members said they were assured that salaries would be credited within a week, and the stipend would be paid as per attendance received from respective colleges.
“The Director of Medical Education assured that he will give 12 months valid senior residency certificate from the date of joining of senior residency, and he also considered our view of making eligible for Telangana Assistant Professor regular recruitments,” they said in press note, adding that they had called off the ongoing strike with immediate effect.
