Bhubaneswar: Junior doctors of Veer Surendra Sai Institute of Medical Science and Research (VIMSAR), Burla, will decide on Thursday whether to continue their cease work further.
A decision in this regard will be taken in the general body meeting, said the junior doctors’ association (JDA) president Shankar Manchandani after a meeting with Health Minister Atanu Sabyasachi Nayak here on Wednesday.
Manchandani added, “We discussed several issues of the institution and apprised the minister about the problems we are facing. Since the delegation can’t take a decision on the strike, we will take a call tomorrow after discussing it with all our association members.”
A 10-member delegation of VIMSAR met the Health minister and discussed their 11-point charter of demands.
Meanwhile, health services at the premier referral institution in western Odisha have been affected severely due to the ongoing agitation of the doctors which entered the ninth day yesterday. Making things worse, the resident doctors and Nursing Association of VIMSAR have also extended their support to the striking junior doctors. About 450 junior doctors and house surgeons are on strike to press for fulfillment of their demands.
Their demands are installation of a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machine, delegation of financial and administrative powers to VIMSAR, shifting of female medicine ward to a new building, strengthening of security on the medical college premises, round-the-clock water and electricity supply at the operation theatre, a labour room, a sick newborn care unit (SNCU), an intensive care unit (ICU), a new medicine ward, a canteen, hostels, an increase in library fund, recruitment of staff for the library, filling up of vacant teaching and non-teaching posts and improvement in the sanitary condition of the institute.