Doctors boycott work for third day; Medical services hit

New Delhi, May 16 (UNI) Resident and junior doctors and medical students continued with their indefinite strike for the third day today paralysing medical services in government hospitals across the capital despite the Centre promising a higher education reservation 'mechanism' to satisfy all concerned.

Though parallel OPD units were set up, services in Delhi's five premier government hospitals including AIIMS and LNJP, remained affected.

However, emergency and ICU departments functioned in all the hopsitals.

The parallel OPD units were set up in All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), the Safdarjang, Guru Tegh Bahadur, the Lok Nayak Jaiprakash Narain and Sucheta Kriplani Hospitals, to attend to patients who were returned yesterday.

Resident and Junior doctors of Deen Dayal Upadhyay, Ram Manohar Lohia, Lal Bahadur Shastri and Ihbas hospitals also joined the fasting students of 'Youth for Equality'.

Terming as ''disappointing'' the government's promise, striking resident doctors said the proposal was not acceptable to them and again appealed to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to set up a non-political judicial committee to review the reservation policy.

About 1,500 agitating resident and junior doctors, medical students and pupils from other institutions, under the banner of 'Youth for Equality', are holding a candlelight march at AIIMS and Safdarjung hospital here tonight.

''We are not against the backward classes or their uplift. We are seeking a more merit oriented approach to higher education. The agitation will continue,'' Dr Neha Gami, a Resident Doctor with Maulana Azad Medical College, told a news conference here.

Services were resumed at all private hospitals, including Sir Gangaram Hospital, where operations were severely impacted yesterday.

A Delhi Government statement claimed that resident doctors of 14 hospitals under its control withdrew from the strike.

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