Nagpur: The directorate of medical education and research (DMER) Dr Pravin Shingare, on Wednesday, threatened to cancel the registrations of residents doctors who have stopped attending OPDs as a mark of protest against violence on their counterparts in others parts of the state.The negotiations between the medical education minister Girish Mahajan and the residents failed despite the minister assuring to post 1,100 guards by the month-end in some hospitals. The doctors have demanded a guarantee for their safety till the guards are put on duty.In a related development, the Indian Medical Association (IMA) across the state has come out in support of the resident doctors. About 3,500 private practitioners in city have decided to close their ODDS indefinitely and only attend to emergency cases to show solidarity with the residents.Earlier in the day, the DMER asked college deans of 16 government colleges to expel 2,400 resident doctors. This included 440 from Nagpur and totally 609 from Vidarbha.TOI has learnt from reliable sources in the Maharashtra Association of Resident Doctors (MARD) that the residents would join the duty on Thursday morning. Residents at many Mumbai hospitals did so on Wednesday night itself.Mahajan had warned in the afternoon that if the residents do not join till 8pm on Wednesday, they would lose "six months' salaries". But the residents continued to individually not to report to OPDs to work way their round a high court ruling till late Wednesday evening.The medical minister told TOI that it was strange that despite being assured that guards would be put in place (700 in the first phase and 400 in the second phase) till the month-end, the residents "were arguing that who will be responsible for their security until then"."If they can be firm on their stand, we too will not budge. This is not a trivial issue. We will begin action on Thursday," he said.Dr Shingare told TOI that DMER would be cancelling the registration of the 2400 residents if they do not report to work by 8am on Thursday. "First the registrations of the office-bearers of the Maharashtra Association of Resident Doctors (MARD) will be cancelled and later of the others," he said.The DMER chief added that in his ten-year tenure, he has increased the total number of guards from just "300 across all GMCs to 1200". "From 10 CCTVs initially, there are about 1100 CCTVs and 200 walkie talkies. The solution doesn't lie in just increasing security guards or giving them arms. Regular deliberations are needed with the authorities as well as patients," said Dr Shingare.IMA president Dr Avinash Wase said the resident doctors have been consistently pressing for security over the years. "But the state government has completely failed to provide that. Residents of only government hospitals are soft targets for the public. No incidents are reported from private colleges as guards are posted there," he said.The Vidarbha Hospitals Association (VHA) too issued a statement saying it affiliates will attend to only emergency cases.

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