Healthcare services, except the emergency ward, in many hospitals run by municipal corporations in Delhi witnessed a shutdown today as doctors, nurses and medical staff suspended work as part of the indefinite strike by municipal corporation employees.
Around 2,000 consultants, 5,000 resident doctors and 13,000 nurses have joined the strike by municipal corporation employees over non-payment of salaries for the past three months.
All the doctors, municipal-based dispensaries, maternity homes, polyclinics, para-medical staff, technicians and four major hospitals of civic agencies, including Bara Hindu Rao, Swami Dayanand and Rajan Babu Tuberculosis hospitals, have halted their medical services till the corporation releases their salary.
"For the past one year, we are facing the same problem. We have not been getting our salaries. Every time, we have to agitate to get our payments.
"We want a solution to the problem and this can only be done by unification of all three corporations and timely payment of MCD employees," Dr R R Gautam, President of Municipal Corporation Doctors' Association, said.
"We really apologise for the inconvenience caused to patients, but we are helpless," he said.
"All the patients who were not critical have been discharged and we are not taking any new admissions. Even in the emergency ward, we are treating only the critical patients," Dr Aditya Gupta, president of the resident doctors' association at Hindu Rao hospital, the biggest run by the MCD, said.
He said they were referring all patients to Delhi government-run hospitals.
Bara Hindu Rao hospital caters to more than 10,000 patients in its OPDs per day.
Nearly one lakh MCD employees, including doctors, nurses, engineers, teachers, technicians, sanitation workers and other class III and IV staff, who have not been paid salaries for up to three months, are on indefinite strike demanding the release of their salaries.
