Kerala - Kochi   

Doctors strike work

KOCHI: Doctors under the Kerala Government Medical Officers’ Association (KGMOA) has started a non-cooperative strike from Thursday against the government’s apathy towards their demands in spite of the High Court’s intervention.

At a press conference here on Friday, Manoj Narayanan, president of the association, said it was the apolitical nature of the association that was playing truant in accepting its demands.

The 2,200-odd members of the association were not a major vote bank for the political parties, he said.

Dr. Narayanan said the indefinite strike that the doctors had started in October last year was temporarily withdrawn from December 7 after the court’s request.

The court had also asked the government to form a working group to study the problems faced by the doctors and submit a report on March 13.

The working group headed by Health Secretary Vishwas Mehta, which met on February 21, had refused to accept the demands of the doctors, said Dr. Narayanan.

The minutes prepared according to the nature of the meeting was submitted to the High Court.

However, since the court had sought a report on the problems and not the minutes of the meeting, the government had yet again sought time to submit the report.

Citing the lack of concern regarding the problems of doctors,

Dr. Narayanan said that while the Chief Minister had agreed to sort out the problems, there was no action for the compassion expressed.

The doctors had initially started a non-cooperative strike in 2006 when the pay revision proposals had shown anomalies in the doctors’ pay package.

The doctors had been demanding for not just a better pay package but also for a division of the health services into administrative and specialty cadre.

The demands were agreed upon by the government in principle but they were never implemented, Dr. Narayanan said.

Dr. Narayanan said the State government was not just indifferent to the doctors’ problems, it was also threatening those doctors suspended during the Sabarimala season for not taking up extra duty during the strike period.

It had also disregarded the court’s directives and tried to cancel the registration of doctors.

Besides, the government was also trying to create hurdles for doctors from enrolling for post-graduate programmes.

The striking doctors would not take up any extra work. The extra work included taking part in medical camps, VIP duties, training programmes, planning schedules and monthly review meetings for outreach programmes. The health services continued to be short of doctors with more than 600 vacancies left to be filled, Dr. Narayanan said.

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