Resident doctors in medical colleges on the warpath

Call for token strike between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. on Monday

Resident doctors in medical colleges in the State have found fault with the current management of the pandemic, which, they said, was adversely affecting both their academic and practical lives. They have now called for a token strike between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. on Monday, when they will stay away from all COVID and non-COVID duties. Functionaries of the Kerala Medical Post Graduate Association (KMPGA) said that despite repeated requests to the authorities, their concerns had not been addressed. They claimed that only two batches of postgraduate medical students were available in medical colleges with final-year students having completed their course. The 2015 batch of MBBS house surgeons have already completed their tenure and an extension as well. This was causing a serious shortage of manpower and would affect the treatment of COVID and non-COVID patients if urgent steps were not taken. They said that the admission of COVID patients should be decentralised to non-medical college hospitals in the periphery because the treatment of patients with other diseases had been crippled across the State. They pointed out that medical colleges, the largest medical training facilities, had been overburdened with COVID cases. Postgraduates need proper training, but their academic programmes had been severely compromised with online classes. Surgical specialties had been the worst hit.