On Thursday, OPD services had resumed in all six medical colleges of Jharkhand as the state health minister Banna Gupta met the protesting senior resident doctors at his residence in Ranchi. He assured the doctors that the government will pay the arrears of the 7th Pay Commission in instalments and the first instalment would be disbursed by March-end.

Dr Ajit Kumar, convener of the Jharkhand Resident Doctors Association (JRDA), said that the strike in all medical colleges is officially called off after meeting the health minister. The government has acknowledged their demands and said they were legitimate and guaranteed that the arrears would be paid in instalments.

Approximately, 800 junior and senior resident doctors throughout Jharkhand had boycotted OPD services in all the medical colleges for protesting against the delay by the government in payment of their arrears since 2016. Many patients were denied the OPD services during the strike, which started on 9th March. There were around 400 senior resident doctors in Jharkhand with arrears due worth of Rs 50,000 to Rs 3 lakh depending on their service period since the enactment of the Seventh Pay Commission.

The minister also said that the government was grateful to the doctors for offering their services during the coronavirus pandemic and they wish to see them happy. The government will be committed to fulfil all their legitimate demands.

A JRDA member said that chief minister Hemant Soren had asked the chief secretary along with the health and finance secretary to look into this matter and address the same. Several protesting doctors were determined to get at least 50 percent of their arrears to be paid in the first instalment, however agreed to accept whatever the government was offering considering the poor condition of the state funds.

The meeting was attended by representatives of the Indian Medical Association who had written to the CM for his intervention on Wednesday. The junior resident doctors of Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS), Ranchi had also called off their strike on Wednesday after meeting with state health secretary K.K. Soan. But the senior resident doctors continued their protest till they got direct guarantees from the health minister on Thursday.

The OPD services in the six medical colleges – RIMS, SNMMCH in Dhanbad, Mahatma Gandhi Memorial College Hospital in Jamshedpur, Palamu Medical College, Hazaribag Medical College and Dumka Medical College are operated by the resident doctors.

Source: The Telegraph online