RIMS continues to wear a deserted look on Sunday. Picture by Eastern Projections

Imphal, Feb. 7: The striking doctors and employees of the Regional Institute of Medical Sciences today decided not to attend the outpatient departments for an indefinite period from 9am tomorrow, adding thrust to their agitation against alleged misuse of funds by RIMS authorities.

The leaders of the Teachers and Medical Officers’ Association, Association of Junior Doctors, RIMS Nurses’ Association and Non-teaching Employees’ Welfare Association today held a meeting to review the two-day strike and decided to intensify the agitation.

In a joint statement, the four associations said the meeting had decided to suspend work at outpatients departments indefinitely from 9am tomorrow in addition to suspension of emergency services and classes, rejecting the authorities’ appeal to call off their agitation and resume emergency services.

The striking employees shut the emergency department of the institute from 9am yesterday in protest against the failure of the institute to pay their January salaries. The teachers suspended all classes yesterday. The doctors too suspended routine operations.

The emergency operations on patients already admitted to the hospital, however, were conducted and OPD functioned as usual. Services at the wards were also not affected.

At a meeting yesterday, deputy director Chandramani Singh and medical superintendent Y. Mohen Singh appealed to a delegation of strikers to resume emergency services. “We appealed to the strikers at a meeting last evening to end the agitation and resume emergency services. They have not accepted the appeal. We will be meeting them again tomorrow and make a fresh appeal to review their decision,” Mohen Singh said today.

“The closure of emergency services may claim lives. The authorities and the strikers should arrive at an agreement and resume the emergency services in the interest of the public,” Ratan Kumar Singh, a relative of a patient admitted to the surgery ward, said.