Nagpur: The Federation of Resident Doctors’ Association (FORDA) on Monday night announced complete shutdown of healthcare institutions, hours after protesting doctors were detained by the Delhi Police.
According to an official statement by the medical fraternity, “Resident doctors, the so-called ‘Corona warriors’, protesting peacefully to expedite Neet-PG counseling 2021 in Delhi were brutally thrashed, dragged and detained by the cops. There will be a complete shutdown of all healthcare institutions from today onwards. We strongly condemn this brutality and demand the immediate release of Ford representatives as resident doctors.”
The FORDA has been protesting for over 10 days due to the delay in NEET-PG 2021 counseling. On Monday evening, the agitation turned violent and several people were left injured. The federation also claimed that their female protestors were ‘manhandled’ by the male police personnel. They marched and protested outside the health ministry’s office.
The AIIMS resident doctors’ association has also come out in support of FORDA saying it will shut down all the non-emergency services on Wednesday if there is no response received from the government in 24 hours. The medical body further claimed it to be a ‘black day’ in history. The resident doctors have also alleged that they are being overworked and have been demanding urgent recruitment of new doctors. The recruitment has been halted for over a year due to the Supreme Court hearing a case involving reservation in medical admissions.
The resident doctors’ association across the country have been protesting for over 10 days that the government should proceed with academic counseling for the admission of around 50,000 MBBS doctors who passed the postgraduate NEET-PG exam conducted in September 2021.