The Manipal hospital Bangalore takes pride in being one of the premier hospitals in Bangalore. When you think of this hospital you think this is a corporate hospital that is well staffed. However the truth is that they are understaffed and do not have enough junior doctors or registrars.
The Junior doctors are made to work for more than 24 hours in one shift every week and in multiple night shifts which start at 3 pm in the afternoon and extend till 11 or 12 the next day. The turnover is very high as the junior doctors feel exploited and underpaid.
And what do they pay, a measely 18-20 K a month for a doctor who has put in 5 years of education.
The MOH has laid down the following guidelines but this is not adhered to.
Ministry of health and family welfare, Government of India sent consolidated instructions to all states and UT administration vide letter number S-11014/3/91 ME (P) regarding implementation of Uniform Central Residency Scheme after the directives of the Supreme Court in its judgment dt. 25.9.87 in writ petition No. 348-352 of 1985,
The instruction No.13 of this letter ‘Hours of Work', it is mentioned that
"Continuous active duty for resident doctors will not normally exceed 12 hours per day. Subject to exigencies of work the resident doctors will be allowed one weekly holiday by rotation. The resident doctors will also require to be on call duty not exceeding 12 hours at a time. The junior Residents should ordinarily work for 48 hours per week and not more than 12 hours at a stretch subject to the condition that the working hours will be flexible as may be decided by the Medical Superintendents concerned keeping in view the workload and availability of doctors for clinical work."
As we see, here total weekly hours of work (48 hrs/week) as well as the maximum hours in single stretch (12 hours) are clearly defined. Of course the authorities may remind us the flexibility given in above instruction. However we would like to state the following.
a) Any flexibility given by law or constitution should only be used as a special measure and must not be used as ROUTINE. Today Medical colleges in India are forcing Junior doctors to work continuous 24 Hrs (!) and this is being practised routinely for last many years.
b) That flexibility is given for 'Working hours' & not for hours of work that is, while authorities are free to post any doctor in day or night or in holidays, they must stick to the norms of "hours of work" that is Maximum 48 hours in a week and 12 hours Finally even if the total no. of doctors posted (when all posts are filled) are not able to cope with work load under normal working-hours-limit then the no. of post must be increased. In no case junior doctors to be forced to work more than what is permitted by law and various recommendations. in a single stretch.
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