Junior doctors in India’s state of Andhra Pradesh are on strike… demanding more stipend money for house surgeons and postgraduate students.

Medical services in all the government hospitals have been affected and patients are bearing the brunt of it.

The junior doctors are organizing protest demonstrations at several hospitals and are threatening to go strike if their demands are not met.

The junior doctors normally attend to emergency cases on humanitarian grounds.

[Shekhar Panje, Junior Doctor]:
“On the humanitarian grounds only we did not boycott emergency. We still continue emergencies. We are just boycotting OP (out patient department), and surgeries. Then we have sit for indefinite hunger strike, so we are ready to give our lives. So even putting our lives at stake, we are fighting for the genuine demand of ours. So if government doesn't respond, so we will intensify our strike and we are ready to do anything and we are ready to go for any extent.”

The local doctors association says doctors are paid high stipends in states across India.