Covid patients at Hindu Rao Hospital to be shifted to other hospitals after strike call by doctors

COVID-19 patients at the MCD-run Hindu Rao hospital will be shifted to Delhi government hospitals as doctors and other staff of Hindu Rao have given a notice for a strike, Delhi health minister Satyendra Jain said on Saturday.

This comes amid protests by resident doctors of the Hindu Rao hospital over non-payment of salaries for the last few months.

"The staff of the hospital should be paid their salaries. If the MCD is not able to run Hindu Rao and Kasturba hospitals, then they should hand them over to the State government," Jain told reporters here.

Resident doctors of the hospital continued their protest on Saturday with posters and slogans demanding payment of salaries.

"Is this how COVID-19 frontline workers should be treated? The MCD is blaming the Delhi government and the Delhi government is blaming the MCD. We are suffering in this political football," says a protestor.

Reaching out to support fellow practitioners, the Resident Doctors Association of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences on Tuesday wrote a letter to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal requesting his intervention.

Earlier in June, the Delhi Medical Association (DMA) wrote a letter to Home Minister Amit Shah, seeking an appointment over the non-payment of salaries of resident doctors of Kasturba Hospital, Hindu Rao Hospital, and other hospitals or dispensaries under North Delhi Municipal Corporation

Citing problems being faced by families of doctors, the medical association said: "Under such stressful situation, doctors have been put under avoidable additional mental stress and distractions due to the non-payment of their salaries."

( With inputs from ANI )