A recent circular has been passed by Health & Family Welfare Department (H&FW Dept.) of Delhi favouring the resident doctors. The government has finally taken notice to the hardships faced by the resident doctors in various hospitals at the national capital territory of Delhi. This circular was issued by H&FW department considering that resident doctors were often assigned with continuous duties across multiple shifts, often exceeding an entire day.

Let’s imagine a resident doctor working in the busy buzzing capital city, although his official working hours are less than 12 hours, his routine life would look something like this
a. On a regular day from morning 7:30a.m to 12p.m in the night, extending to 1p.m in most occasions.
b. On O.P.D days, the work commenced from the morning would continue up to the next day night, making his continuous working hours for more than 36 hours without sleep.

Without a holiday even on Sunday’s or festival days, residents are made to work day and night without adequate rest. Lack of time to care for oneself or family, no entertainment even once in a blue moon, residents are driven to depths of hell with a workload. These working hours posed an immense stress on the residents, making them exhausted, weak and fall sick. There have also been incidences of multiple attempts of suicide by many residents after being unable to manage the stress levels.

Considering the stress imposed and burden faced by the residents, H&FW Dept. has decided to subdue this practice and restrict clinical duties of resident doctors. It released the circular addressing: All Directors/ Medical Superintendents & Head of all clinical departments in various Hospitals /Institutions should not assign continuous duties across multiple shifts to residents. This practice should be stopped forthwith and a new duty roster of residents should be prepared. The order states that:
1. The duty roster for resident doctors is to be prepared in a way that they are put on clinical duties not exceeding 12 hours in a shift in a day.
2. First point with an exception that, in case of clinical needs: Only the director/ Medical Superintendent of the hospital will have the power to extend the duty of a resident beyond 12 hours but not exceeding 17 hours. However, for all such cases, the superintendent or the director should inform the Secretary of H&FW Dept. at pshealth@nic.in through a mail.
This is a better initiative by the government to provide residents there well deserved rest, aiding them to serve the community better.

A resident doctor in a hospital when questioned about the difference between a resident and a patient, he seriously quipped, “The patients are the ones who eventually get better and go home”. The present circular comes in as a silver lining for all these busy residents.

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