'Regulate our duty hours'

Resident doctors at AIIMS are planning a campaign to demand guidelines for limiting their long working schedule

With most of the city hospitals getting around 10,000 patients every day, the resident doctors at these hospitals often end up spending long hours on duty.u00a0Now, the resident doctors at All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) want guidelines to be issued to regulate duty hours of the doctors.



To achieve that, they are planning a campaign and want doctors from all other hospitals to participate in it. "There are no guidelines regarding the working hours of doctors in India. We work endlessly in the wards without expecting anything. But there should be some guidelines that regulate their duty hours," said Dr Debjyoti Karmakar, President, Resident Doctors Association (RDA) of AIIMS.

100 hrs and more per week
According to the doctors, in the United States, a doctor can work only for 80 hours per week and exceeding that limit will result into the violation of the duty rules. "I work for 115- 120 hours in a week. We don't mind serving people, but there should be some limit to the duty hours," said a junior resident from gynaecology department of AIIMS on the condition of anonymity. Doctors from other institutes too feel that this issue of long duty hours needs to be looked into. "A first year PG student has to spend minimum 30- 40 hours at a stretch in a hospital. We get a break of only 10- 14 hours. All the interns are overloaded with work here," said a first year PG student from Maulana Azad Medical College on the condition of anonymity. Resident doctors at other institutes like Lady Hardinge Medical College, Vardhaman Mahavir Medical College and Ram Manohar Lohia hospital are excited about the campaign and are eager to participate in it.

Campaign gathers support
The doctors are also posting their concerns over the social networking sites like Facebook. "I think our department is the only one in AIIMS where the workload is according to international standards--- 24 hours off after every 24 hour emergency duty, 24 hours off after 12 hours of ICU duty and routine duty of around 10 hours a day (bit on higher side). But the point is, can we do something to amend those long duty hours in the departments like OBG?" read one of the posts on Facebook. "I did my MS from Kolkata There too resident doctors put in 100 hours a week. We, the supposed cream of society, are worse off than labourers," read another post. When contacted, the AIIMS management gave no definite reply on the issue. "I am in a meeting and cannot talk to you. Also, I have no idea about the issue, will have to check," said Dr Y K Gupta, official spokesperson of the AIIMS. Even the officials at the Union Ministry for Health and Family Welfare, did not reply to any of the messages from the MiD Day.

Doctors for green
Last year, doctors from major hospitals of the city came together to support the cause of the residents of Asiad Village Society near Siri Fort Complex, who have been fighting for restoration of their neighbourhood park for the last 13 years. The doctors tied tri-colour threads and ribbons on trees near the sealed property of a banquet hall that had allegedly encroached upon the public park around the Asiad Tower. Talking about Doctors for Green campaign, Asiad Village Society secretary Captain Krishan Sharma said: "The doctors from all over Delhi came to support our cause. It was a symbolic way to go green."u00a0 "We all need a cause to work in life. Once we have a cause, it can turn into a movement," said Dr. Rajiv Gupta, Consultant at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital here, about the initiative.