By IANS,
Mumbai : The on-going doctors’ strike in Maharashtra forced a woman to deliver in a cab late Saturday evening.
The woman, Seema Bano, was on her way to the government-run Baba Hospital in Bandra, north Mumbai, but was denied admission by the striking doctors.
The frantic couple then rushed to a private nursing home nearby, but on the way Bano went into labour and delivered a baby girl in the taxi itself, without any medical help.
The mother and baby are doing fine in Jagtap Nursing Home in Mahim.
The doctors have apologized for the incident.
The doctors are not ready to give up until their demands are fulfilled. State coordinator of the Maharashtra Association of Resident Doctors (MARD) Ravikant Singh said: “We had a talk with Health Minister Dilip Patil in the evening. Although I would rate the talk as positive, but our demands haven’t been fulfilled yet so we will continue to strike.”
The doctors’ association plans to have talks with Health Secretary Amitabh Chandra Sunday.
The Maharashtra government Friday hit back at the striking medicos by serving termination notices to 311 of the about 3,500 agitating resident doctors of government-run hospitals.
Since Tuesday, resident doctors of 13 government medical colleges across Maharashtra are on strike.
They are protesting against the reduction of post-graduate medical seats from 653 last year to 411 this year, a cut of 242 seats.
The seats have been reduced because the Directorate of Medical Education and Research (DMER) has failed to get the mandatory recognition for the seats from the Medical Council of India (MCI).
The seats have fallen off the MCI’s map because DMER did not comply with MCI rules, mostly for not having enough teachers.