Director of Medical Education (DME) Thomas Mathew on Friday issued an order directing that the weekly working hours of postgraduate medicos in government medical college hospitals (MCHs) be strictly restricted to 60 hours and that they be mandatorily allowed a day’s weekly off .
Following the order, PG medicos and house surgeons called off their Statewide strike which had run into the third day and was threatening to throw the entire day-to-day working of the MCHs into disarray. The medicos rejoined duty on Friday evening itself.
The order was issued by the DME soon after the talks between Health Minister Veena George and the medicos. During the talks, the medicos had insisted that rather than just promises they needed a written assurance.
As promised by the Minister, the DME’s order specifies that the directives in the Residency Programme manual issued by the government in 2009 should be strictly adhered to by all MCHs. Accordingly, they should ensure that the working hours of doctors do not exceed 60 hours a week and that they are allowed a day’s weekly off without fail.
All medical colleges have also been asked to ensure that the college-level grievance redressal committees are in place, as specified in the Residency Manual. The grievance redressal committees should meet every month and take necessary steps to resolve the problems of the resident doctors.
The medicos expressed satisfaction over the assurances they had been given regarding workplace safety and reducing the workload of doctors . With workplace security so much in focus, it was agreed by the Health Minister during the discussions that house surgeons will be posted on night duty in hospitals in the periphery only after security audits are conducted and found satisfactory.
