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New Delhi: A letter from a concerned wife to one of the most prestigious cardiology hospitals in Delhi, GB Pant Hospital, asking the authority to intervene with the cooling period from prolonged working hours and counselling for her husband, a first-year DM Cardiology student, has once again brought the plight of the Indian resident doctors into light.The recent letter of Dr. Rishu Sinha, the wife of a first-year DM Cardiology resident, Dr Amit Kumar, has gone viral in the medical circle, with many doctors on social media empathising and sharing the broader concerns faced by the resident doctors- especially their mental breakdown caused by prolonged duty hours compromising sleep and rest.In the letter addressed to the Cardiology Department of GB Pant Hospital, Dr. Sinha mentioned how her husband, Dr. Kumar, took the extreme step of resigning from a dream job- a superspeciality course of cardiology, primarily due to excessive work pressure and duty hours."My Husband, Dr. Amit Kumar, pursuing DM in Cardiolog,y is suffering from sleep deprivation, burnout, exploitation and humiliation due to 36 hours continued duty causing mental and physical tiredness as well forced for minimal work not suitable for his course. Due to such toxicity and depression, he has submitted his resignation on 23.10.2025. The National Task Force Report 2024 is also concerned with the mental health problems of the medical students due to excessive working hours. Therefore, GB Pant Hospital shall must take responsibility of the outcome of the excessive duty hours and ensure wellness of the students," Dr. Sinha's letter mentioned.Mentioning how pursuing the Super Speciality course in Cardio was her husband's lifetime dream, Dr. Sinha further added, "But he has been forced to resign due to excessive, unauthorised and illegal working hours."She asked the Department for a cooling period and proper counselling before accepting the resignation of her husband and wrote, "I am worried that if the resignation is accepted without his proper counselling, it may further harm his mental health. Therefore, I request to provide him humanly working hours duty for one month as cooling period and proper counselling before accepting his resignation. It may help him to come out from the trauma faced by him since joining the course."This is not the first time that the excessive duty hours violations at the workplace have been highlighted. Recently, a nationwide survey was conducted by the United Doctors Front (UDF), and the Medical Dialogues team gathered responses from 1,031 medicos across India, and it revealed that 62% of the respondents reported working for more than 72 hours per week, while more than half said that they do not receive a weekly off. A whopping 86% of the respondents expressed their belief that excessive duty hours are directly harming their mental health and compromising patient safety.1992 Residency Rules: Reasonable working hours have been a long-pending demand of the resident doctors. Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that after the Supreme Court took cognisance of the issue, the Central Government introduced the Central Residency Scheme, 1992.Addressing the issue of duty hours of resident doctors, the scheme said that continuous active duty for resident doctors will not normally exceed 12 hours a day and subject to the exigencies of work, the residents will be allowed one weekly holiday by rotation.However, these rules only remained on paper, and the plights of resident doctors continue till now. Earlier this year, the United Doctors' Front (UDF) filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) in the Supreme Court against the "inhumane working hours of resident doctors". The association has challenged the "exploitative and unconstitutional working conditions imposed on resident doctors across the country".Amid all this, the allegations made by Dr. Sinha regarding the prolonged working hours faced by her husband while pursuing the DM Cardiology course at GB Pant Hospital have highlighted the reality of the resident doctors once again.RTI Applications:Dr. Sinha has already filed two Right to Information (RTI) applications before the hospital, seeking information regarding the working hours rules as well as the duty performed by Dr. Amit Kumar."I had also sought information regarding implementation of 1992 directives (48 hours a week and maximum 12 hours at a stretch). But I was not supplied any information despite both of my RTI were under 48 hours provisions of RTI Act. This is unfortunate that the institutions like GB Pant Hospital have no faith in law of the land as 1992 rules are not followed and RTI Act is not honoured at all. How can an legal entity ingnore the rules and acts applied to them?" Dr. Rishu Sinha's letter addressed to the Cardiology Department mentioned.Speaking to Medical Dialogues, Dr. Sinha said, "Because of toxic duty hours and inhumane activity, he was forced to resign the day before yesterday. For the four months, ...
