Ludhiana: Doctors ready for indefinite strike

Ludhiana: Doctors of Punjab Civil Medical Services (PCMS) are all set to go on indefinite strike from September 9. As the doctors have announced to go on indefinite strike, it is expected that healthcare services in the state will be badly affected. A meeting was held today with the Special Secretary of Health and Family Welfare Department and the main issues of the cadre were discussed in detail, but the meeting could not reach any conclusion and the doctors decided to go on strike. It is worth mentioning that this was the fourth such meeting in the last two weeks, in which no solution was reached. Doctors are making every effort to ensure that patients know about the strike in advance and hence they are distributing pamphlets mentioning their demands among patients along with OPD slips.

“Doctors are prescribing medicines for at least two to three weeks to all patients visiting OPD to deal with the period of indefinite suspension of services in all government hospitals of the state on September 6 and 7,” said Dr Akhil Sareen, state president of PCMS Association. He said the doctors will also complete all elective surgeries by September 8, as elective surgeries are likely to be suspended indefinitely from September 9. The unresolved issues of the doctors include obstruction in assured career progression, payment of arrears of the Sixth Pay Commission (Centre) and safety at workplace. “There is acute shortage of staff in government healthcare institutions in the state, they are working at half capacity. Apart from treating patients, doctors are also burdened with other tasks like VIP and emergency duty, postmortem and medico-legal cases. There are 4,600 sanctioned posts of doctors in the state, of which 2,800 are lying vacant,” he said. The PCMSA members said the call for indefinite suspension of services will continue until the demands, especially ACP, are met through necessary channels as the cadre is ready for a decisive battle.