New Delhi: Junior resident doctors, who have been disengaged from the 500-bed Covid-19 facility at Ramlila Ground linked to Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital in the national capital without notice, are hurt and disappointed.
Labelling the move “unfair”, they are questioning the manner in which they were removed.
“Just when I felt I could be doing something and contribute to the Covid situation in the capital, they discharged me… it is unfair,” one of the 31 doctors who has been discharged said on condition of anonymity.
“I had completed my MBBS and internship only in February and while the contract was for three months, I barely served at the Covid care centre for a week,” said Dr Anuj Yadav, a 25-year-old junior resident, who lives in Mayur Vihar.
Yadav was among the 31 doctors who were discharged Monday, less than two weeks after they joined duty at the Covid facility.
“I had even received interview calls from other places but we prioritised this one. And now I don’t know if I did the right thing,” Yadav said.
Dr Nitin Bagari, another junior resident doctor who was disengaged, said: “The authorities hired us for a period of three months and yet we have been removed within ten days without proper notice or anything.”
Moreover, the remaining nearly 130 such doctors have also been told that they will be disengaged, said doctors still working at the facility.
However, amid the uproar over the issue among doctors and administrative officials at GTB, the hospital authorities have decided to hold the process to discharge the remaining doctors from duty.
To meet the growing shortage of ICU beds amid the heavy second wave, the Ramlila facility was opened on 12 May when the capital recorded 13,768 cases and 17.03 per cent positivity.
But cases have been on a steady decline since then. On Tuesday, the city reported 1,568 cases and 2.14 per cent positivity. The facility itself has fewer than 100 patients.
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Doctors say others also told they will be disengaged
In the first week of May, the GTB Hospital began interviews to engage 261 junior resident doctors, 80 senior resident doctors and 350 nurses “on short term and urgent basis” for the 500-bed facility.
Over 160 junior resident doctors were engaged. They were hired on an honorarium of Rs 6,000 a day, according to a notice of the Delhi government, accessed by ThePrint.
However, on Monday, 31 of these doctors received an order from the hospital stating that they are disengaged from their duties with immediate effect.
“The following consultants/Junior Residents with a qualification of MBBS or MBBS + 5 years experience recruited purely on per day per shift basis to work at the temporarily established 500 bedded covid facility at Ramlila ground, GTB Enclave, Delhi are hereby disengaged from their respective duties with immediate effect,” the order said, carrying details and names of the discharged doctors along with their employees codes.
The remaining doctors took up the issue with the senior staff. However, they were orally communicated that their services will be terminated too. A formal notice is yet to arrive though.
Dr Amanpreet Kaur, 26, a resident doctor who came to Delhi from Haryana to join the facility, said: “Two of my colleagues were told on Monday that the rest of us will also be terminated, which is not fair at all. People had other offers at hand and they left those. I had recently written my NEET.”
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Hospital says story is different, disengagement process on hold
The GTB hospital authorities, however, said the story is different from what has come out.
Dr Rajesh Kalra, additional medical superintendent, GTB Hospital, said, “We had hired 167 junior resident doctors of which 136 turned up… but no one knows that at least 30-40 stopped coming within a week.”
He said, “The whole idea of having the junior residents around was for patient care but so many of these doctors ended up leaving without any notice. Some didn’t like the atmosphere, some wouldn’t turn up for night shifts and just because we aren’t discussing this in public, it doesn’t mean those disengaged have been asked to leave just like that.”
However, Kalra clarified that the hospital’s medical director has taken a lenient view of the situation and approached the competent authority on the issue of disengaging the other doctors left.
“We will not be disengaging any more doctors at this point and are also trying to see that those who have been disengaged can be kept in mind when the next round of interviews are conducted,” he said.
The authorities also noted that the joining letter clearly specified that those joining can be discharged at any point and that it was a temporary post.
But Dr Nitin Bagari countered: “All joining letters on ad hoc basis state this line but hospitals don’t quite just wake up and discharge someone like that.”
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