Resident doctors call for fee waiver, ₹25k stipend hike - The Times Of India

Resident doctors call for fee waiver, ₹25k stipend hike - The Times Of India

Sumitra DebRoy@timesgroup.com

Mumbai:  20.05.2020

Thousands of residents doctors, who are the backbone of Covid care in public hospitals, have urged the State government to waive off their tuition fee for the year in light of their crucial contribution to the fight against coronavirus. In a letter to the chief minister, the Maharashtra Association of Resident Doctors (MARD) has also urged the government to hike their stipends by Rs 25,000 and not impose any tax cuts.

The association, which represents over 4,000 PG students in public medical colleges, has said the annual fee of nearly Rs1 lakh should not be charged this year from all three batches pursuing postgraduation in the state and BMC-run medical colleges.

The doctors, who get a monthly stipend of Rs 54,000, have asked for a raise of Rs 25,000, to bring their stipends on par with the Rs 80,000 incentive BMC is offering private MBBS doctors to join civic Covid-19 facilities.

They have also demanded six days of quarantine following eight days of duty and shift hours not stretching beyond six hours. A separate life insurance cover of Rs 1 crore is also among the demands.

Members of the State Covid task force and medical college deans, who had a meeting with the resident doctors’ body last week, have agreed to increase the stipend by Rs 10,000.

The task force also said doctors will be allowed six days off after a nine-day shift, but there was no discussion on fee waiver, an official privy to the meeting said.

“Not only are most doctors working without offs, we are also not being taught anything related to the speciality we had enrolled for since everybody is on Covid duty, hence, we had sought a fee waiver,” said Dr Deepak Mundhe, president, MARD.

Unimpressed with the Rs10,000 hike, MARD representatives said it was overdue since August 2018, but never implemented.