NEIGRIHMS resident doctors withdraw stir after Director’s assurances

By Our Reporter, TNT News | Shillong, June 25, 2018: 

The resident doctors of the Cardiology Department of North Eastern Indira Gandhi Regional Institute of Health and Medical Sciences (NEIGRIHMS) have decided to call off their work strike following assurances from the Director of the Institute, Dr M Thappa even as they demand him to provide them a resolution of the meeting within 72 hours.

The decision was taken after a lengthy meeting between the aggrieved resident doctors, DM students and the Director, who joined the Institute today morning.

During the meeting, the students demanded the Director to clarify on all the harassment issues related with the residents. "Initially Director was unwilling to relent to admit the mistakes made by the institute with regard to examination process and quarter allotments to the residents. The first round of talk failed due to stiff attitude of Director NEIGRIHMS," said one of the resident doctors.

The next round of the meeting lasted for four hours where the residents narrated their grievances and asked for written explanation. The Faculty of Dept of Cardiology also expressed their deep frustration towards the "affairs of examination and mishandling of faculty of Cardiology and other staffs of the Department for the last one year" which has never been witnessed in the last fifteen years of working of department.

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While the Head of Department of Cardiology has shown all the papers since the time he has made correspondences with the administration, the Dean of NEIGRIHMS put forward all the points of the administrative side to justify the stand of the administration.

According to the resident doctors of the department, the Director has apologized for all the "miscommunications and debacle in the affairs of examination process" as the Head of the institution and assured the students that he would rectify all the issues within 48 hours.

They also stated that Dr Thappa has also promised to give due consideration to the quarter allotment to the residents, who have been arbitrarily denied quarter allotment in the recent past. "He has also assured to take up the matter of rescheduling the examination dates with NEHU after consultation with the Head of the Department and rectify the examination paper settings, moderation etc as per the extant guidelines of the institute."

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Furthermore, they stated that the Director has promised that the tenure of DM cardiology students would also be extended in order to give them fair chance to prepare their examination papers and appear in the examination without any hassle. "He has also promised that he is open to resolve many other issues of the Department of Cardiology in a pragmatic manner," they stated.

The Resident Doctors have expressed their satisfaction on the assurance given by the Director and requested him to communicate the resolution of the meeting in the next two to three days so that they can concentrate on their work and stand up to build up this great institution for which we are all here.

Meanwhile, the outcome of the meeting was briefed to the NEIGRIHMS resident Doctors association (NRDA) whereby it was decided that protests will be withheld till the resolution of the meeting is communicated to NRDA in the next three days.

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