The National Board of Examinations (NBE) on October 27 warned the administration of the Hindu Rao Hospital in Delhi of withdrawing accreditation if the facility does not immediately release the pending stipend to the 'Diplomate of National Board' trainees.

The degree awarded by the National Board of Examinations, which establishes standards of post graduate examinations in medicine across the country, is called 'Diplomate of National Board'. In a letter to Hindu Rao Hospital medical superintendent, the Executive Director of NBE, Professor Pawanindra Lal, said the body has taken a serious note of an October 24 email from the Hindu Rao Hospital, mentioning that DNB trainees at the hospital have last been paid stipend in July and there is delay in disbursal of salary August onwards.

"NBE believes strictly in the policy of "no work no pay". In the instant matter, the hospital has failed to pay stipend to DNB trainees and NBE strongly supports the cause of its trainees that there will be no work if there is no pay. "DNB trainees cannot be forced to perform clinical duties if the stipend due is not being duly paid to them," the letter said. The letter also stated that stipend is essential for day-to-day subsistence and cannot be postponed by giving cumulatively at any point later than when it is due to be paid. "The hospital is required to release the pending stipend to the trainees immediately failing which NBE shall be constrained to take appropriate action including but not limited to withdrawal of accreditation of Hindu Rao Hospital," the letter added.

Patients of North Corporation-run hospitals faced hardship as its senior doctors went on an indefinite strike on October 27, a day after they had gone on casual leave en masse over their pending salaries. Residents doctors of the Hindu Rao Hospital have been agitating over their pending salaries since the last week of September and by turns, five of their colleges have been sitting on a relay hunger strike for the past few days.