AIIMS stand-off may end as Minister agrees to sign degrees

New Delhi, Aug 29 (UNI) Prospects for an end to the resident doctors' strike at AIIMS brightened today when Union Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss agreed to sign immediately the degrees of those students who need to submit them urgently at other Universities.

The resident doctors have been on strike since yesterday, demanding that their degrees be signed and handed over to enable them to apply in other Universities.

AIIMS spokesperson M K Singh said in a statement that Director P Venugopal met the Health Minister in the afternoon and it was decided that the convocation will be held as scheduled on September 25. ''The Minister has agreed to immediately sign the degrees of those students whose degrees are required urgently for submission in other Universities,'' he said.

An Resident Doctors' Association functionary, however, said a decision to call off the strike will be taken at a general body meeting later tonight. ''We will not let Emergency services be affected,'' he said.

Contradicting media reports about services being affected by the strike, Dr Singh affirmed that the hospital was fully geared up to run all emergency services and all patient care services have ''run in an absolutely normal manner''.

''There has been no disruption of any patient care functions, either last night or today,'' he said.

Earlier in the day, the Minister appealed to the doctors to call off their strike and assured to resolve the dispute over awarding of their degrees.

Blaming the AIIMS administration for the delay in awarding of degrees, he said the strike was unfortunate as it was affecting patient care in the institute.

UNI