7,000 resident doctors on strike, medical services crippled in Rajasthan, 100 surgeries postponed at Jaipur hospital

More than 100 surgeries were postponed at the hospital as of Tuesday as a result of the strike. The general wards and the ICU were among the worst-hit departments of the hospital.

Parshuram Meena (56), from Sawai Madhopur, had come to SMS Hospital for a kidney operation, but could not get an appointment with a doctor.

“I came to Jaipur on Monday, but I still have not been able to meet a doctor,” Meena said Tuesday. “My surgery was supposed to happen on Wednesday, but looking at the situation, I am thinking of going back and returning next week. This is a helpless situation,” he said.

While the state government has urged the striking doctors to get back to work, they say they have not got any assurances from the government.

Dr Saket Dhadhich, media adviser of the Jaipur Association for Resident Doctors (JARD), said: “We do not want to continue with the strike because we know the problem the patients face. But the government has not given us any assurances.”

On the demands of the doctors, he said: “We have demanded better security and infrastructure arrangements in all medical colleges for doctors’ security. Stipend should be increased, because it has not been done for the last four years. Also, junior specialists should be recruited in all branches in which postgraduate degrees are awarded. There are eight total demands and we want each to be accepted.”

Deepak Maheshwari, principal of SMS Medical College, however, criticised the doctors, saying the strike was continuing even though the government had accepted many of their demands.

“This is the eighth strike in one-and-a-half years. What problems do these doctors have that they go on strike so frequently? Should we stop attending patients for every small inconvenience? The state government had tried to convince the doctors to call off the strike and even accepted many of their demands. They must talk to the government and find a solution to this,” Maheshwari said.

He said the doctors currently working at the hospital are doing longer shifts to take care of patients.

Government hospitals outside Jaipur have also been impacted, with resident doctors holding strikes in districts including Ajmer, Udaipur, and Sikar. While emergency and trauma wards of most of the hospitals continue to function, surgeries and routine work have been postponed.