The Telangana Junior Doctors Association (T-JUDA) on Tuesday called off their six-day strike after they were assured that non-COVID-19 services would be resumed at Hyderabad’s Gandhi hospital across all departments on or before November 21. The state-run Gandhi hospital has been the nodal centre for the management of the COVID-19 cases so far, and the junior doctors had alleged that it was hampering their learning and limiting academic experience.
Now, the government has said that other services and treatments will also resume at the hospital and two other hospitals will serve as nodal centres. Replacing the Gandhi hospital as the nodal centre, King Koti hospital and Telangana Institute for Medical Sciences (TIMS) would now serve as the new nodal centres for COVID-19.
According to a Times of India report, on Tuesday, the state Directorate of Medical Education (DME) passed an order to the superintendents of all the teaching medical hospitals to resume treating non-critical COVID-19 patients and that only critical COVID-19 patients who require tertiary care should be sent to the Gandhi hospital. This had been one of the main demands of the junior doctors, who say that their academic and clinical experience has been halted as Gandhi hospital has been treating only COVID-19 patients.
The Junior Doctors’ Association also issued an official statement, reports say, and have stated officially that they are calling off the strike as the non-COVID services are being resumed.
As reported by TNM earlier, the junior doctors’ strike at Gandhi hospital was also gaining support from the junior doctors from other medical institutes as well. Junior doctors of RIMS (Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences) and KMC (Kakatiya Medical College) had also notified their respective administrations about their intent to go on a protest from November 18, if the demands were not fulfilled. Meanwhile, Osmania Gandhi Hospital (OGH) doctors had also offered their solidarity and threatened to go on a strike as well.