Talks with junior docs fail; JUDA to intensify stir

Hyderabad: The talks between Telangana Junior Doctors Association (JUDA) and Director, Medical Education, failed to resolve the crisis and junior doctors decided to intensify their agitation from Tuesday till the government agrees to rescind the GO 107 which makes it mandatory for them to serve one year in rural areas.

According to the JUDA, the DME, Dr Putta Srinivas, failed to give any assurance to them on their demands and all that he said was he would forward their demands to the government. Following this, junior doctors of Gandhi Hospital, Hyderabad, and MGM Hospital, Warangal have decided to boycott emergency services from Tuesday.

As the strike entered the eighth day, the government asked the DME to invite the JUDA activists for talks and persuade them to call off the agitation. Coming out of their hour-long meeting with the DME, JUDA expressed disappointment that he had not given them any kind of assurance. Among other demands they had put forward was to provide proper security at hospitals by deploying CISF to prevent attacks on duty doctors by relatives of patients and salaries on par with Civil Assistant Surgeons and residential system.

The DME, who later met the media, said he would wait for the instructions of the government on the demands put forward by the JUDA.