Junior doctors to go on strike from July 22

Junior doctors have threatened to go on strike from July 22, opposing the  orders that the fee from PG medical students be collected for the first year and colleges may obtain bank guarantee for the remaining period of the course.

The AP Junior Doctors’ Association served a strike notice on health minister Kondru Murali in his chamber at the Secretariat here on Tuesday.

Junior doctors are also opposing other contents of GO No. Ms 93 issued on July 1. The GO says that colleges can collect the stipend amount equivalent to the total stipend payable for the period of the course at the time of admission from the candidates admitted to PG medical colleges.

AP Junior Doctors Association general secretary Phani Maheswar Reddy said that they would boycott duties from July 22 if the government did not accept their demands. 

He said private colleges were collecting Rs 10 lakh fee for the three-year course from  merit students at the time of admission and poor students could not pay the entire fee at one go. The stipend system too was not fair as the government was collecting money from students and paying the same to students.

Junior doctors also opposed the government’s permission to colleges to fill seats under the management quota if merit students did not come forward to join the course. They also demanded that all teaching hospitals be upgraded to the status of NIMS and all government employees and public representatives from Class-4 to the chief minister should get treatment only at government hospitals.

They said they were ready work in tribal areas life long, provided the government appointed them as government doctors on  permanent basis.