Hyderabad, May 10: The agitating junior doctors who have been on strike for the last 18 days which crippled medical services in Niloufer, Osmania, Gandhi and MGM Hospital in Warangal in protest against the attacks on them have called off their strike.
The strike was called off after the government agreed to deploy special protection force (SPF) at Niloufer Hospital from tomorrow.
On the instructions of chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy, principal secretary of medical and health PV Ramesh and other senior officials of the department including the superintendent of Niloufer Hospital and representatives of Junior Doctors Association was held at the Secretariat on Monday. The outcome of the discussions was fruitful and the junior doctors agreed to temporarily call off their strike.
Speaking to reporters later, Ramesh said it has been decided to deploy special protection force (SPF) at Niloufer Hospital from tomorrow itself.
It has also been decided to constitute a committee consisting of senior officials from medical and health department, doctors and the police department to look into security aspects at all government and teaching hospitals in the state.
The committee will submit its recommendations to the state government in a month and based on the report, the government will take necessary steps.
The principal secretary clarified that the death of infants at Niloufer Hospital on Sunday was not due to negligence of doctors and even during the strike period emergency cases were attended.
He said every day 100 to 150 children get admitted to Niloufer Hospital in a critical condition and on an average 10 to 15 children die because they are brought to the hospital in last stages.
The state government has immediately released Rs. 49 crore from the allocated budget of Rs 200 crore for purchasing medicines in all government hospitals and for improving infrastructure facilities including teaching hospitals, he said.
Junior Doctors Association members Ravi Kumar Reddy and Mohd. Imran said they called off the strike temporarily on the assurance given by the government.
They wanted the committee, which is being appointed by the government, to submit their report within a month. They clarified that they had given the strike notice well in
advance and blaming doctors was not fair.
–Agencies