Mumbai: As the strike by resident doctors enters its 10th day on Thursday, representatives of the Central Maharashtra Association of Resident Doctors (MARD) said they would soon meet chief minister Eknath Shinde. “Our protest continues and we will not relent until our demands are met by the state govt,” said a Central MARD representative on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, the Municipal Medical Teachers Association has decided to postpone its mass casual leave protest and give the BMC administration time to improve security at hospitals. The association’s members had stayed away from work on Saturday.
With no planned surgeries and curtailed OPDs, patients visiting the hospitals continued to suffer. “We are operating at one-tenth of our capacity,” said a senior doctor. The OPD service of four colleges at KEM in Parel, LTMG in Sion, Nair in Mumbai Central and Cooper in Juhu has been affected by over 50%. While the average daily OPD in KEM is 6,000 patients, the number is down to 2,000-2,500 on most strike days. In Sion hospital, the corresponding number is down from about 4,000 to 1,500. tnn