New Delhi, Dec 7 (FN Representative) The Federation of Resident Doctors’ Association (FORDA) on Tuesday announced to further intensify their agitation as the association is likely to march to Union Health Ministry if it fails to take a concrete step to expedite counselling of NEET PG 2021 qualifiers.
The announcement from FORDA, which is spearheading the nationwide campaign to expedite the NEET PG counselling, has come after a continuous delay in the admission process for postgraduate medical courses. Dr Manish, President of FORDA, told UNI that the association is likely to take out the march on Thursday. “We are tired of verbal assurances. We are now waiting to receive a concrete response from the Union Health Ministry by Wednesday. In case we didn’t see any visible action from the Centre to resolve our issues, we will proceed with our march on Thursday,” he said. “We will begin formalities like getting permission from Delhi Police to take out the march on Wednesday.
Thousands of doctors will throng the streets,” Dr Manish added. Resident doctors across the nation continue to protest for more than 10 days now over repeated delays in the NEET PG counselling which will allow 45,000 junior doctors to join the hospitals. Several hospitals are functioning with just two-thirds capacity of their total resident doctors’ strength as the delay in the NEET counselling has cost the qualifiers a year of their residency program. Resident doctors of the Centre-run RML, Safdarjung and Lady Hardinge hospitals in Delhi and from state-run hospitals across India have boycotted all routine and emergency services from Monday in support of a nationwide protest called by the Federation of Resident Doctors’ Association (FORDA) against the delay in NEET PG 2021 counselling. Expressing concern over manpower shortage in the health care scenario especially with the impending third wave, and amid detection of cases of Omicron variant, the FORDA said it is disastrous to note the postponement of NEET PG admission in medical colleges.