Doctors boycott duties, continues protest at Hyderabad's Gandhi Hospital

Doctors at the Gandhi Hospital in Hyderabad continue to stage a protest and boycott their duties at state's COVID-19 dedicated hospital here on Thursday.

The doctors at the state-run hospital continued to protest against the authority despite the state Health Minister Eatala Rajender's visit on Wednesday.

One of the doctors said: "The doctors have not attended the patients since Tuesday night. The health minister had arrived after 24 hours of the protest. We have given a letter to the Superintendent of Gandhi Hospital. We will protest unless our demands are fulfilled."

The doctors are demanding to decentralise Gandhi Hospital for COVID-19 in the State.

"We are not going to resume our duties until our demands (decentralisation of COVID cases) be fulfilled in a time-bound manner by honourable Chief Minister/Health Minister sir," read the letter.

For the doctors on contract, they have demanded to convert the service of present doctors who are working for 3-4 months to permanent services, the doctor added.

Gudur Narayan Reddy, Congress said, "The Health Minister could not give heat to the doctor's demand. All this is leading to a chaotic situation. It is an irresponsible way of conducting themselves as government heads, especially during this pandemic."

Telangana State Junior Doctors Association started protesting on Tuesday after attendees of a COVID-19 deceased entered the hospital and beat up a doctor. The incident happened after the patient was declared dead in the ICU ward of Gandhi Hospital.

( With inputs from ANI )