Rajya Sabha okays AIIMS bill; docs to intensify stir

STRIKE AN UNACCORD: AIIMS resident doctors Resident Doctors will boycott OPD services from Thursday.

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New Delhi: Amidst all the uproar, the AIIMS Bill was finally passed in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday. This bill limits the age of the AIIMS director to 65 years which means that the current Director P Venugopal will have to leave if the Bill is signed by the president.

Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss' initiative has left the resident doctors of the premier institute fuming and they are not prepared to take this lying down.

“The repute is due to the highly reputed doctors who work here and those who give their lives for the betterment of this institute and if they [politicians] are hell bent upon this then they will face a national level agitation from the whole medical community,” says the Doctors Association AIIMS, President, Dr Harsh.

Resident Doctors will boycott OPD services from Thursday along with another group of Operation Theatre technicians and the Karmchari Union of AIIMS. The doctors also say they will not treat any politician who supported the bill.

Patients who come to AIIMS for treatment say that they've been affected the most by the ongoing doctors’ strike.

“Many of the poor patients who have come from very far off places suffer because of these politicians who come and talk to the senior people and they get out-of-turn treatment,” adds Dr Harsh.

Lal Bahadur, a patient at AIIMS, says, “They've made us queue up and won't allow us into the doctor's cabin. They say that they will only let us in when the issue is resolved.

“After making us wait for two hours in Neurology, they told us that they are on strike,” fumes another patient, Shabana Khan.

While emergency services are on, several departments have been paralysed. The worst hit are Neurology, Gastrology and Orthopaedic departments. There are no resident doctors in these departments.

The premier institute is in a state of crisis again but this time the agitation, which might follow, could perhaps have a sharper trigger point —the proposed clause of mandatory rural posting.

(With Preeti Singh)