Residents doctors in Delhi, who had declared an indefinite strike, called it off late last night hours after Delhi government invoked Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA) against them to normalise the functioning of the hospitals run by it.
Earlier in the day, Delhi government invoked ESMA to force an end to the strike which had crippled healthcare services in government-run hospitals across the city.
Delhi Health Minister Satyendra Jain said that the agitating doctors called off the their strike and conveyed it to the government.
The doctors were on strike since yesterday pressing for hike in salaries as well as seeking government’s intervention in other issues.
Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had yesterday said that government had accepted all the demands of the doctors and that there was no need for a strike.
Health Minister, Delhi, also had said earlier yesterday that he will review the situation in this regard after three months along with the doctors.
Certain demands - like increasing hospital beds - cannot happen in three months. We are working on increasing beds in hospitals and also constructing new ones, which will take some time. Most of the medicines are available and 100 per cent medicines will be available by August 15.
–Satyendra Jain, Health Minister, Delhi
The doctors kept up the strike regardless of the statement as, according to them, government has in the past given similar assurances but failed to deliver.
The doctors will resume services today.
Even though a doctor at Safdarjung Hospital claimed that ‘emergency services were not interrupted and managed by senior doctors’, a video shared by a YouTube channel named Crimes Warrior showed the opposite.
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