The resident doctors in Government Medical College (GMC) Srinagar are threatening massive protests against the administration which has withheld their salaries for one month. According to the resident doctors they have repeatedly brought the matter to the notice of the Chief Accounts Officer and Principal GMC for timely disbursement of salaries for resident doctors and stipends for postgraduate residents but nothing much has happened.
The resident doctors claim that despite their tireless efforts to seek clarification from the relevant authorities in this matter the only answer they got is the proverbial, “shortage of funds’. Why was not proper allocation of funds done? And most importantly why was salaries and stipends taken as a matter of least priority in this hierarchy of funds allocation? These are serious questions and they need to be answered by the authorities.
Despite putting in considerable work hours and working with dedication it makes absolutely no sense to withhold the salaries of these resident doctors. The GMC and affiliated hospitals are the cornerstones of our healthcare infrastructure and are the first responders after a casualty-hit patient seeks health care. The Resident Doctors Association further claims that the outstanding arrears from the fiscal year 2023 remain unresolved and this has led to disappointment among the members who put in many hours beyond schedule to ensure the patients get ultimate healthcare benefits.
Kashmir, like many parts of South Asia, also suffers from brain drain. We have seen how the best among our doctors left for Europe, USA, and Gulf countries because they could not take the shabby treatment. These young post-graduate students or resident doctors definitely must be getting offers from healthcare institutions from other foreign countries. This delay in salaries and unresolved arrears can tilt their opinion in a great way.
We hope the government is aware of this. We impress upon the Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha to personally involve himself in the matter and get it resolved in a time-bound manner.
Doctors are an important pillar of our society. Their well-being, for all practical purposes, means our overall well-being.
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