Nearly two weeks after they called off their indefinite strike unconditionally, doctors affiliated to the Federation of Government Doctors Association (FOGDA) are disappointed that the State government has made no efforts to call them for talks. They have urged the Chief Minister and Health Minister to convene talks and take measures to fulfil their long-pending demands.
Lakshmi Narasimhan, convenor of FOGDA, said they met Health Minister C. Vijayabaskar six times, including in Pudukottai, after withdrawing the strike urging him to convene talks with the federation. FOGDA had launched a State-wide indefinite strike on October 25 that last for seven days.
“We called off the strike without any conditions on November 1 following requests from the Chief Minister and Health Minister. The Health Minister had said the government was ready to convene talks with the striking doctors and arrive at a solution on our demands if we withdrew the strike. After we called off the strike, we met the Health Secretary who said that a meeting would be held the following week,” he told reporters on Wednesday. He said when they met Dr. Vijayabaskar in Pudukottai, the Minister said that an announcement on pay band-4, which is “acceptable” to all, would be made, and other demands would be discussed. “But till now, we have not been called for talks nor there are any indications from the government to convene one,” he said.
FOGDA has been demanding pay band-4 as per prospective clause in Government Order 354, implementation of GO (4D)-2 on doctors posts’ taking into account number of patients instead of students’ strength, counselling for service post-graduates and retaining 50% service quota in post-graduation courses.
Dr. Narasimhan said that they have been demanding pay band-4 since 2017. Talking about GO (4D)-2, he said it pertained to restructuring posts of doctors not according to number of patients but the number of students in a government medical college hospital. “In Chennai, hundreds of doctors have been transferred from one institution to another, and some have been posted to different departments. The number of posts should not be reduced, but rather increased as per requirements,” he claimed.
FOGDA has also urged the government to revoke the transfers of doctors, who participated in the strike. Many State-level and district-level organisers of the strike were transferred. P. Balakrishnan, convenor of FOGDA, said 118 doctors were transferred to hospitals that were nearly 200 to 300 kilometres away from their earlier workplaces.
A. Ramalingam, convenor of FOGDA, also participated.
