Around 60 post-graduate medical students at Coimbatore Medical College Hospital (CMCH) staged a demonstration on Saturday demanding reduction in workload, increase in stipend, and improving basic facilities.
According to the letter submitted by the PG students to Dean A. Nirmala and all heads of departments at CMCH, medical interns who were on Compulsory Rotatory Residential Internship (CRRI) were recently relieved, forcing the PG doctors deputed for COVID-19 duty to perform additional activities such as administration of drugs to patients. The letter requested hiring of more staff nurses to reduce the workload of PG doctors.
While complaining that the stipends given to the PG doctors were insufficient, the students also alleged that their stipends have not been credited in the past two months. The letter also complained lack of adequate quarantining facilities for the PG doctors on COVID-19 duty and unavailability of adequate food on the CMCH premises.
“They are asking us to arrange the food ourselves, but our stipends have not been credited yet,” a PG student said. With nearly 200 PG doctors currently taking turns for COVID-19 duty, arranging food from outside might also increase the risk of infection, he said. “We have now placed the request and we will wait till Monday. If no action is taken, we will continue our protest,” he said.
Sources in the CMCH administration said that arrangements for the accommodation of the PG doctors will be arranged in a few days on the hospital premises and the State government must consider their remaining demands.
Published - April 03, 2021 11:56 pm IST
