The agitation at the MCD-run Bara Hindu Rao hospital intensified on Friday with the nurses, paramedics and grade-4 employees joining the senior doctors in their strike.
The nurses and the grade-4 employees have not received their salary for the last month while the salaries of the doctors for the past two months are pending.
The tussle between the Delhi government and the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) has led to the non-payment of salaries of doctors at the Bara Hindu Rao and Kasturba hospitals.
The nurses, paramedics, technical and cleaning staff at Kasturba Hospital will join the agitation from Monday.
“They have given notice to the administration that they will join the strike from Monday. We are continuing with our three-hour long agitation every day till then,” said Dr Maruti Sinha, Secretary, Municipal Corporation Doctors Association (MCDA).“ Senior resident doctors may also join us from next week,” he added.
More patients will have to be turned away from next week if the issue remains unresolved.
Meanwhile, OPD services were hit for the fifth day this week at both the hospitals. With severe staff crunch, the hospitals attended to only emergency patients.
With the strike on from 9am-12 pm, the morning OPDs were stalled.The MCDA has called a general body meeting on Monday.
“It will be decided after the general body meeting if doctors from the other major hospitals under the MCD will join the strike,” said Dr R R Gautam, President, MCDA.We will continue with the daily agitation till then as we have no concrete assurance that salaries will be cleared,” he said.
Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had assured the doctors on Wednesday that the salaries will be cleared in a week.
MCD officials have, however, maintained no funds have been released so far and it is unlikely the doctors would receive payments within this week.
