Health services affected in Jammu after 500 junior doctors quit

JAMMU - Health services across the Jammu region were hit Saturday after more than 500 junior doctors working in various hospitals submitted their resignation letters protesting the governments “indifference” to their demands.

However, the immediate provocation was the governments step to dismiss from service a dozen leaders of the junior doctors spearheading the agitation for better pay and working conditions.

Doctors led by Surinder Sharma, the doctors submitted their letters of resignation to Jammu Government Medical College principal Rajinder Singh.

Following the resignations, health and medicare services all over the region have come to a halt and patients have started returning to their homes in absence of doctors in the hospitals.

Medical Education Minister R.S. Chib said that the action of the junior doctors was “unfortunate”.

“They should have taken into consideration the difficulties of the patients, and waited for the government’s response to their demands,” he told reporters, adding the government was “seriously considering” the demands of doctors and was likely to take a decision by this month-end.