Maharashtra medical students go on strike

MEDICAL EMERGENCY: Talks between the state government and MCI are on to resolve the crisis .

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Mumbai: Posters, sloganeering, street plays: Medical students in Maharashtra led a protest rally against the steep reduction in post-graduate medical seats in the state. And now they have been joined by resident doctors, despite the planning commission report stating there was a lack of six lakh doctors in the country.

PG seats in Maharashtra have gone down from 653 seats in 2007 to 411.

The reason the Medical Council of India derecognised the seats due to a lack of teachers. “The state government hasn't even applied for the recognition, we want the seats back,” says medical intern, Prachi Jhala.

Agrees another medical intern Gunjan Sharma, “We demand state government should be more responsible.”

Worst hit is KEM in Mumbai which has seen a reduction of 56 seats, almost half its original capacity followed by the Indira Gandhi Medical College in Nagpur at 45. ‘

Thirty-seven seats have been reduced in GMC, Aurangabad, 35 at the J J medical, Mumbai and 32 at the Nair Medical college in the same city.

And with the OBC quota in place after the SC verdict, very few seats are actually available in the general category.

Students have been on strike since April 13 but from April 16 resident doctors may join this indefinite strike too and that’s not good news for the government hospitals.

Medical services will be disrupted and patients are likely to bear the brunt. “We're having a meeting and from tomorrow 8 am, we will go on strike,” says Joint Secretary, MARD (Maharashtra Association of Resident doctors), Ravikant Singh.

Talks between the state government and MCI may be on to resolve the crisis but for the thousands of patients seeking treatment at government hospitals, it may be a rough week ahead.