Overview
- Junior doctors in all 19 state medical colleges stopped emergency duties, including ICUs, casualty and labour rooms, when APJUDA moved to Phase III on Monday, August 17.
- The state government issued a release saying it will not implement the regular 15% biennial hike because of current finances and instead offered smaller annual increases.
- APJUDA is pressing for a larger stipend raise (it has sought about 30%), strict adherence to National Medical Commission norms for clinical faculty hires, and rejection of a proposed rise in doctors’ retirement age from 62 to 65.
- Hospitals have postponed minor surgeries and reported long patient waits while administrations deploy senior faculty, assistant surgeons and deputed doctors from private colleges to keep critical services running.
- The dispute rests on G.O. No. 287 (2009) that requires biennial stipend revision and on government figures showing stipends cost about ₹48.84 crore monthly for roughly 9,500 junior doctors with a 15% hike estimated to add about ₹87.91 crore annually.