Strike could affect rural, district hospitals; Mumbai hospitals could stay unaffected
Mumbai: The Medical Students Welfare Association (MSWA) has threatened to go on an indefinite strike anytime soon, if medical exams are not cancelled and the students are promoted. The MSWA said that the proposed strike would affect services in rural and district hospitals, the Out Patients Departments (OPD) in Covid hospitals and Primary Health Centres (PHC’s) and even quarantine centres. “A good part of the Covid care is being handled by medical students. We are just closely following petitions in courts on this issue.
The outcome in court will determine if and when the strike will start,” says Dr Nilesh Jadhav, president of the MSWA. Hospitals in cities like Mumbai are unlikely to be affected by this move. The Under-Graduate and Post-Graduate medical students who double as trainee doctors in various hospitals stated that they had already submitted strike notice a month back to the state government, the Maharashtra University of Health Sciences (MUHS) and even the governor of Maharashtra, as is legally required.
The students are seeking cancellation of exams on health grounds citing how most hospitals are now turned into Covid care centres and medical college hostels have become quarantine centres. The MUHS had refused to heed to their demands to promote students without exams and had instead gone ahead and announced their time-table recently. The medical exams are scheduled to start from August 4 onwards for the various medical courses including Homeopathy, Unani, Allopathy, Nursing etc. “While apex bodies of various medical courses have either refused to respond or insisted on exams, the Indian Nursing Council had suggested that nurses be promoted without exams. Yet, the MUHS is conducting their exams,” cites Dr Jadhav.
