BMC hospital doctors threaten mass bunk over recruitment

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The BMC reduces the burden on resident doctors at its major hospitals by recruiting 188 senior resident doctors every 6 months. But this time, due to the intervention of the state Directorate of Medical Education and Research (DMER), this recruitment has not been done, and will increase the workload on doctors. The contracts of senior resident doctors hired for the job will be over on July 31. Doctors claim that even after being apprised of this issue, the DMER is allegedly not taking steps to resolve it. Hence the BMC-MARD has warned of mass bunking by around 1,500 resident doctors from August 1.

The need for hiring

There are three categories of resident doctors in the BMC's Sion, Nair, KEM, and Cooper hospitals. In the first category, there are junior and senior resident doctors who have registered for post-graduation studies in civic medical colleges. In the second category, there are non-registered senior resident doctors who have done post-graduation, appointed by the BMC on contract basis. In the third category there are resident doctors who complete a government bond. BMC appoints resident doctors as per the second category to take care of patients in ICUs, Burns Wards, Trauma Units, EMS, and departments where doctors are overburdened.

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The term of 188 senior resident doctors in all major BMC hospitals expires on July 31. The BMC had published an advertisement for the appointment of resident doctors and they were to be interviewed on July 19, but DMER intervened and stopped it. The DMER said it would appoint resident doctors.

More doctors needed

Dr Praveen Dhage, president, BMC unit of Maharashtra Association of Resident Doctors (MARD), said, "Two years back, 550 senior resident doctors were appointed at the BMC level. But DMER took over 350 posts from BMC earlier and now wants to take the rest. There is already a shortage of resident doctors in BMC hospitals. At present, first, and second-year PG doctors treat patients. Now if these senior resident doctors are not appointed, there will be a shortage of manpower in civic hospitals and health facilities will be hampered."

Dr Dhage said that these problems have been brought to DMER's attention. A letter has also been given to it with a demand for appointing senior resident doctors at the BMC level. A demand has also been made for increasing the number of posts for these doctors. He said BMC-Mard has asked DMER to fulfill their demands by July 31. If their demands are not met, from August 1, the resident doctors of Sion, Nair, KEM, and Cooper Hospitals will mass bunk work.

However, Dr Neelam Andrade, director of BMC Hospital, said their demands would be resolved soon. Currently, Sion has 51 posts, Nair 38, and KEM Hospital has 99 posts for 188 non-registered senior resident doctors. Resident doctors who are working with government medical colleges and hospitals support the DMER decision. So there is a difference of opinion between BMC and government medical college resident doctors. Dr Dilip Mhaisekar director, DMER said, "We will have a meeting on Monday with civic health officials."

1 Aug
When BMC-MARD has warned of mass bunking