Delhi NEET Counselling Protest: AIIMS and FAIMA join the stir after police crackdown

Doctors from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) and the Federation of All India Medical Association (FAIMA) have chosen to join the protests a day after resident doctors protesting delays in NEET-PG counselling said they were beaten by the police.

In a letter to the Union health minister, doctors from AIIMS, one of the only large tertiary-care government medical college hospitals that had kept away from the protest, stated they will stop doing non-emergency work on Tuesday if no meaningful steps are made.

“It’s high time for the government to release a report of what has been done till date, and what are the government’s plans moving forward for expediting NEET-PG counselling. If no adequate response from the government is received within 24 hours, AIIMS RDA shall proceed with a token strike on 29/12/21 including shutdown of all non-emergency services,” the letter read.

This would hamper patient care in the city further. With emergency departments of big hospitals like Safdarjung and Lok Nayak affected by the strike, patients were being referred to the AIIMS for treatment.

In addition, FAIMA called for its resident doctors’ association to withdraw from all work, including emergency services, after Monday’s incident. The protest began with withdrawal from outpatient department (OPD) services in November end by two national organisations – the Federation of Resident Doctors’ Association (FORDA) and FAIMA.

The protest slowly intensified with doctors boycotting even emergency work, following which on the insistence of the government the strike was paused for one week.

The strike resumed on December 17 as FORDA members withdrew from all services.