A new corpus fund to finance the treatment of resident doctors suffering from various ailments will be set up by the state government. The decision came up after the demise of an intern, Dr Samidha Khandare, at Sion Hospital, who was suffering from multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (MRD-TB) in june.
Minister of medical education, Vijaykumar Gavit, while addressing the members of the legislative council, said that the state would ensure good treatment to the resident doctors.
Gavit said, “We wanted to insure doctors but the insurance companies did not show much interest. Hence the state will set up a corpus fund to treat doctors”.
The issue was brought up by Congress legislator Alka Desai, as she was not in favor of the overall conditions of the doctors. “Doctors are overworked and the living quarters are a mess. They are treated in a shabby manner,” said Desai.
24 year old Dr Samidha Khandare, a resident of Akola, was suffering from multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB). After finishing her MBBS from Lokmanya Tilak Medical College, Khandare was interning at Sion hospital and there she caught the disease. Undergoing her treatment at Sion hospital, khandare was later shifted to PD Hinduja hospital , where she acceded on June 30.
As stated by Maharashtra Association of Resident Doctors, the long hours of work and unhygienic living conditions make the resident doctors more prone to TB.
Deputy Chairman of the legislative council Vasant Dawkhare has instructed the minister to arrange a visit of legislators to the quarters of the doctors in both government and civic hospitals, so as to ensure the council members of getting firsthand experience of the whole situation.
As observed in the recent years, resident doctors have been facing many problems such as long working hours, substandard living conditions, and security issues.
