Resident doctors to join medical students' agitation tomorrow

Ahmedabad, May 16 (UNI) Medical services in government hospitals are likely to be severely affected in Gujarat from tomorrow as resident doctors have pledged to join the ongoing agitation by medical students against reservations.

Medical students across the state today organised ''awareness campaigns'' to highlight the ''deterioration in medical services'' and quality of future doctors if the reservation policy was enforced.

The students held rallies in college campuses and public places.

They also distributed pamphlets to underscore the ''ill-effects'' of the reservation policy.

The students undertook polishing of shoes and sweeping of streets to protest the reservation policy.

A cross section of the medical students, while speaking to UNI, said resident doctors from four civic hospitals -- Vadilal Sarabhai Hospital, L G Hospital, Shardaben Hospital and Nagari Hospital, will join the agitation from tomorrow.

Meanwhile, Dr Prajyot Singh, a medical student leader from Vadodara, said the Vadodara resident doctors had already joined the agitation since yesterday. The agitation would continue and intensify, he added.

A report from Surat said students from two medical colleges -- Government Medical College and Surat Municipal Institute of Medical Education and Research (SMIMER) -- continued their agitation today by holding ''silent protest rallies'' and ''dharnas'' in their college campuses. However, they did not launch their proposed hunger strike in front of the district collectorate as announced earlier.

Students from SMIMER told UNI that a ''dharna'' was organised in front of the college gate and a ''silent rally'' taken out in the campus. But, patients were not prevented from entering the hospital, they said. About 500 to 600 medical students participated in the agitation.

UNI MP MAZ HS GC2103