The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Doctors on the warpath again

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Tuesday, Aug 25, 2009
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Doctors on the warpath again

B.S. Ramesh

They will stop sending reports to higher-ups

There are more than 4,000 doctors working in government hospitals and institutions
They have threatened to quit if their demands are not met

BANGALORE: Stung by a remark that “you bite more than a mosquito” by a top official and also by the apathy of the State Government in conceding their demands, government doctors are once again on the warpath. This time around, they do not plan to go on strike but have decided to resign en masse.

There are more than 4,000 doctors working in government hospitals and institutions, and the Karnataka Government Medical Officers’ Association has decided to ask all its members to quit government service if their demands are not met by September 28, 2009.

Association Secretary Srinivas pointed out that when they had gone on strike in November 10 to 13, 2008, the Karnataka High Court had come down heavily on them and asked them to call off the strike.

The State had then committed before the court to favourably look into and consider the demands of the government doctors.

Association president H.N. Ravindra said the Government had agreed to settle the demands by January 2009 but it had not fulfilled their demands. However, even after 10 months elapsed, the State has not shown any inclination to meet the doctors or consider their demands, said Dr. Ravindra and Dr. Srinivas. They said doctors in government service were putting in long hours for a paltry salary when compared with their counterparts in the private sector. While a professor in a private medical college earned upwards of Rs. 60,000 a month, the Director of Health Services in the State got just half that.

Stung by remark

They said office-bearers of the association had been touring the districts and enlisting the support of the members for future course of action and said Health Minister B. Sriramulu had not met them even once.

Later, when they met a top official of the Department of Health and Family Welfare, he told them: “You bite more than a mosquito.”

Taking umbrage to the remark, Dr. Srinivas said it had set off protests among the medical community. All government doctors had, henceforth, been asked not to send reports (of diseases and epidemics) from August 26 to higher-ups.

Dr. Ravindra and Dr. Srinivas said their main demands included regularising appointment of government doctors made on contract basis, banning all future appointments of doctors on contract basis, remove salary disparity and giving time-bound promotion. They said if all their demands are met, it would entail an additional expenditure of Rs. 135 crore.

Besides, 1,642 posts in different hospitals and in the Health Department are vacant.

There is just one doctor for 16,000 people as against the World Health Organisation (WHO) norms of one doctor for 800 people.

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