Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

Doctors’ strike total in district

— Photo: C. Ratheesh Kumar.

EMERGENCY SERVICES: Doctors examining patients in the casualty section of General Hospital in the city on Thursday. Only casualty and emergency services functioned at the hospital.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The one-day token strike by government doctors in Health Service on Thursday in protest against the government’s failure to settle their pay revision issues was total in the district.

Except for some senior doctors who are due to retire from service shortly and some Superintendents of government hospitals, the majority of the 400-odd doctors working in the district stayed away from all clinical duties.

The casualty and emergency services functioned normally while services in out-patient clinics were disrupted in all hospitals.

Doctors also attended to in-patients in wards and went on strike after the morning rounds.

At the General Hospital, 62 out of the 70 doctors joined the strike, in Peroorkada Government hospital, only three doctors turned up for duty while the Mental Health Centre and all taluk hospitals did not have any attendance by doctors.

As the doctors had put up posters announcing Thursday’s strike in front of hospitals about two weeks in advance, the patient inflow was also lesser than usual. Patients who came from the periphery without prior knowledge of the strike had to return or consult the duty doctor in the casualty.

A few doctors posted on contract in the periphery hospitals by the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) reported for duty. But many NRHM doctors and doctors posted on compulsory rural service in primary health centres, in an expression of solidarity with government doctors, did not report for duty.

Meanwhile, three teams of Health officials, including Director of Health Services and NRHM Director Dinesh Arora, visited several institutions in the district to conduct a surprise inspection.

They visited the taluk hospitals at Chirayinkil, Neyyattinkara and Nedumangad; the W&C Hospital, Thycaud; General Hospital; Peroorkada government hospital, the primary health centres at Kadakampally, Pozhiyoor and Kanjiramkulam and the Community Health Centres at Poovar, Kesavapuram, Vellarada and the government hospital at Varkala.

Doctors at all five government Medical Colleges in the State began an indefinite strike on Thursday by staying away from teaching duties, in protest against the government’s decision to extend the service of 10 doctors in medical education service disregarding other norms.

All doctors in Medical Colleges observed ‘Black Day’ on Thursday and reported for duty wearing black badges.

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