Gandhi Hospital doctors call off strike

The Telangana Junior Doctors Association (T-JUDA) on Tuesday called off their six-day strike after they were assured that non-COVID-19 services would be resumed at Hyderabad’s Gandhi hospital across all departments on or before November 21. 

The state-run Gandhi hospital has been the nodal centre for the management of the COVID-19 cases so far, and the junior doctors had alleged that it was hampering their learning and limiting academic experience. 

Now, the government has said that other services and treatments will also resume at the hospital and two other hospitals will serve as nodal centres. Replacing the Gandhi hospital as the nodal centre, King Koti hospital and Telangana Institute for Medical Sciences (TIMS) would now serve as the new nodal



centres for COVID-19. 

The state Directorate of Medical Education (DME) passed an order to the superintendents of all the teaching medical hospitals to resume treating non-critical COVID-19 patients and that only critical COVID-19 patients who require tertiary care should be sent to the Gandhi hospital. 

This had been one of the main demands of the junior doctors, who say that their academic and clinical experience has been halted as Gandhi hospital has been treating only COVID-19 patients.

The Junior Doctors’ Association also issued an official statement, reports say, and have stated officially that they are calling off the strike as the non-COVID services are being resumed.