‘AAP’ government’s health model has upset both patients and doctors: Balbir Singh Sidhu.

SAS Nagar, June 30 – Former Punjab Health Minister and senior Congress leader Balbir Singh Sidhu has said that the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government’s health model has upset both patients and doctors. He said that the Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann-led AAP government’s gross negligence towards the health care sector is pushing the young doctors of Punjab to the brink of despair.
He said that today, government hospitals are in a dilapidated condition, OPDs have been shut due to doctors’ dharnas, surgeries have come to a standstill and patients are also facing hardships. This is because the state government has chosen to ignore the legitimate demands of its own medical community.
Mr Sidhu termed the imposition of a new bond of Rs 20 lakh on MBBS students and the unnecessary hike in tuition fees as a major attack on the dreams of youth (especially those coming from middle and low income families) who aspire to become doctors.
He pointed out that to become a doctor, a student has to spend Rs 13-14 lakh, which is already too much, and this new bond of Rs 20 lakh is a blatant injustice. He said that instead of resolving the demands of future doctors, this government is pushing them further into debt.
He said that despite a 24x7 commitment towards public health, resident doctors in Punjab receive the lowest stipend in the country. Moreover, this new bond policy is exploitative, and the new hike in fees is making deserving students unable to pursue medical education and pushing them out of the system.
Censing Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, he said that he is watching the state's health care system collapse and is not taking any action to save it. He said that the doctors' strike is a cry for justice. These are the same youth who served tirelessly during Covid-19, and now they have to fight this battle for their rights.
He demanded that the Rs 20 lakh bond policy be withdrawn immediately, the stipends given to these doctors be increased immediately and this unfair tuition fee hike be rolled back. He said these policies of the AAP government would force medical students of Punjab to either move out of Punjab or quit medical education altogether, leading to a huge shortage of doctors in the future.