Resident doctors at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi have written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in support of the protest by doctors in Rajasthan for higher pay and promotions, PTI reported.
The AIIMS Resident Doctors’ Association on Saturday urged Modi to “live their life for a day” in order to understand the stress under which they work. The doctors said that they had to face the ire of patients’ relatives and that even the infrastructure at their disposal was poor.
“RDA AIIMS requests you to put [on a] white apron and spend one day as a government doctor to understand the tremendous amount of pressure we face, the agony of patients who did not get treatment, the dying healthcare system due to lack of resources and infrastructure,” the organisation’s President, Harjit Singh Bhatti, wrote.
Bhatti said that by doing so the prime minister could set an example for ministers who level baseless allegations against doctors.
The Rajasthan High Court on December 19 ordered the doctors across the state who went on strike to resume work immediately. The doctors, associated with the All Rajasthan In-Service Doctors Association, refused to work after the police arrested 55 doctors on the orders of the Vasundhara Raje government. Their protest came a little over a month after a doctors’ protest crippled healthcare services in several districts of the state.
The AIIMS doctors alleged that their protesting colleagues’ demands were accepted by the Rajasthan government, which later reneged on its promises. “Please instruct the Rajasthan government to fulfil their promises and stop all atrocities against doctors,” the doctors urged Modi.
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