TN medicos strike enters fifth day, Stalin wants govt to talk

Over 16,000 doctors in government hospitals across Tamil Nadu are on a strike since Friday pressing for their demands including pay parity.

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As the government doctors’ strike in Tamil Nadu enters its fifth day on Tuesday, house surgeons also joined the striking medicos on Monday. According to reports, Leader of the Opposition in Tamil Nadu MK Stalin visited the striking doctors and assured them of his support on Monday.

The Federation of Government Doctors Association, which is a collective of five service doctors’ groups have been on an indefinite strike since Friday. The striking doctors’ have listed four key demands from the government — periodic salary raise and promotions from the state health department; rectification of all inconsistencies in GO 4(D)2 (the government order implementing the staffing pattern to the hospitals so as to strengthen the healthcare delivery systems. The posts are sanctioned as per the Medical Council of India guidelines) and hiring people according to patient strength; 50% state-wise reservation for PG speciality and super speciality courses; and fourth, transparent counselling while appointing those who have completed their PGs.

Since house surgeons also joined the strike on Monday, minor surgeries, non-emergent and elective procedures are being postponed across the state. Leader of the Opposition and DMK chief MK Stalin visited the striking doctors on Monday in Chennai and assured them of his support. Urging the doctors to fight for their rights, he also requested them to desist from putting their lives in danger by going on a fast. Adding that it was painful to see the government is not inviting the doctors for talks, Stalin said that the demands made by the protesting medicos are beneficial to the patients as well.

This is not the first time government doctors in Tamil Nadu are going on a strike insisting on their demands of pay parity. On July 10, government medical officers in Trichy, Chennai and Salem organised a day-long hunger strike emphasising their demands. On August 20, the doctors, interns and their families formed a human chain to draw attention to their demands.

In September, five doctors went on a fast unto death to force the government to listen to their demands. A few days after that, government doctors across the state held a strike. The state government, at that point in time, formed a committee to review the demands put forth by the doctors within six weeks. However, since even after six weeks and bye-elections in the state got over, there has allegedly been no response from the committee which has forced the doctors to escalate their strike.