Around 300 doctors affiliated to the Residents´ Association of NAMS started the five-day protest action at 13 hospitals including Maternity Hospital, Thapathali and the Army Hospital from Wednesday and threatened to stop providing even emergency services from August 31 if their demands are not met.
The protest by resident doctors doing their three-year post graduate MD and MS under NAMS affected services at Bir Hospital Wednesday. Though there are around 50 senior doctors at Bir, the hospital is dependent on the resident doctors to handle around 1,000 patients daily.
“We submitted our demands to the vice chancellor on August 4 but he refused to budge even after three rounds of dialogue. We again submitted him a letter on Monday and stopped providing our services from today, running out of patience,” said spokesperson of the association Dr Arbin Joshi.
The doctors claim that the monthly stipend of Rs 12,000 provided them is the lowest in Nepal. “Teaching Hospital provides Rs 18,000 and BP Koirala Institute of Health Sciences provides Rs 26,000 apart from providing residence. NAMS was providing Rs 8,000 for six years before the increment last year but its net effect was zero as it also raised the monthly fee by Rs 4,000,” Dr Joshi mentioned. He also showed the shabby duty rooms at Bir and said the hospital didn´t even provide drinking water.
He says only Bir Hospital out of the 13 hospitals provide a night duty allowance of Rs 250 to doctors and demanded that all hospitals pay Rs 1,000 for night duty. Vice-chancellor of NAMS Dr CP Maskey said that the doctors were informed prior to their admission that there would be no residential facility and are therefore in no position to demand that now. “We raised their stipend to Rs 12,000 from Rs 8,000 last year and cannot raise it to Rs 18,000 as demanded by them now. The night duty allowance is for lunch, dinner and snacks and is equal for all staff. If we raise theirs only, others will also demand a raise which the hospital cannot afford,” Dr Maskey argued. The doctors say the hospital staffers get Rs 18,000 stipend and they should also get the same as they perform as much task as the staffers.
He said NAMS cannot force other independent hospitals to raise night duty allowance but promised to take initiative to request those hospitals to do so. “Other than that, we can fulfill their other demands and will address around 90 percent of the demands through a letter later today,” Dr Maskey said.
Residents´ Association of NAMS spokesperson Dr Joshi acknowledged that the association received a letter from the VC in response to their demands but expressed dissatisfaction over it and said the protest will continue. The association is meeting at 9 a.m. Thursday to decide its further course of action.
Referring to Dr Maskey´s promise to address 90 percent of demands, he said,“They have addressed 90 percent of our demands but not fulfilled them." They said that the stipend and night duty allowance would not be raised, Dr Joshi pointed out.
He said NAMS has promised to take initiative to improve the facilities at duty rooms but has not set any time frame. "They have agreed to provide free treatment at Bir Hospital apart from private cabin facilities but that is meaningless as it is free for every citizen” Dr Joshi argued.
Related story
Resident doctors to boycott outpatient services from Friday
