Government run hospitals in India have become extremely short staffed after 10,000 doctors go on strike, and demand better pay and better promotion opportunities that are equal to what doctors in the federal medical services get paid. The doctors have been on strike for four days now. The Government is not giving in to the doctors demands though, opting to bring in 373 military doctors for the time being instead.
1,000 more doctors are going to be brought in on Monday, and the government is also planning to bring in doctors from railway services, bring others out of retirement and has even gone as far as to ask some private hospitals to provide care at government rates. Navdeep Singh, Rajasthan’s director general for law and order, said as of Saturday night police had arrested 394 striking doctors for violating the Essential Services Management Act.
Durga Shankar Saini, head of the All Medical Doctors Society, was among the group of Doctors who were arrested. Many other doctors around the country of India are standing firm with their brothers and sisters. The heads of the medical associations in Haryana, Punjab and Himachal Pradesh signed a long letter advising the government to do what’s right and pay the doctors, and even went as far as to say ”The profession of doctors is very noble but when their voice is not heard they are forced to go on the path of agitation.”
