Resident doctors said that delay in admission caused an acute shortage of doctors. (Representational)
Around 1,500 resident doctors of various medical colleges in Gujarat went on a day-long strike on Monday to protest against postponement of the NEET-PG counselling, claiming the delay in admission caused an acute shortage of doctors which increased the workload on junior doctors.
Besides, hundreds of professors and lecturers of various government and Gujarat Medical Education and Research Society (GMERS)-run medical colleges also held protests across the state over their long pending demands, including payment of arrears as per the 7th Pay Commission recommendations.
The Centre recently put on hold the counselling for the NEET-PG 2021 until January next year over some issues and also informed about it to the Supreme Court.
The National Eligibility cum Entrance Test for Postgraduate (NEET-PG) courses is conducted for fields like the Master of Surgery, and Doctor of Medicine. Counselling is part of the admission process.
"Normally, post-graduates are admitted in May. Now, due to the postponement of counselling, the new batch of PG students will arrive in March next year. Thus, instead of three batches, resident doctors of only two batches are attending all the patients for the last one year. This has increased our workload," a protesting doctor from Surat said.
Another medical student suggested that the government think of employing outside doctors in government-run hospitals, which are affiliated to medical colleges, until the new PG batch arrives.