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Doctors to strike work from Thursday
No room for patients: The cardiology outpatient wing at the General Hospital in the captial remained deserted following a token strike by doctors last Thursday.
Kozhikode: The functioning of all government hospitals, other than medical college hospitals, is likely to be affected as the Kerala Government Medical Officers’ Association (KGMOA) has decided to go on an indefinite strike from Thursday.
The decision was taken at a meeting of the State committee of the KGMOA here on Sunday.
Briefing reporters after the meeting, association State president Manoj Narayanan and other office-bearers said the strike would be total and all wings including casualties would be affected.
The association will not prevent doctors willing to work from joining duty (during the strike). “We will not prevent those doctors who are not our members or those doctors under the National Rural Health Mission (NHRM),” Mr. Narayanan said. The doctors would abstain from private practice from Monday. Terming the decision to strike work ‘a unanimous one,’ Mr. Narayanan said the agitation by the 2,200-strong organisation began on April 17, 2006. The doctors have been seeking to redress anomalies in their pay scales.
He said the government’s move to transfer doctors from one end of the State to another, to counter ‘a peaceful strike,’ was ‘extremely cruel and against democratic norms.’ “The government is taking things easily. The public are at the receiving end of such retaliatory measures adopted by the government,” Mr. Narayanan said.
The ‘parochial interests’ of some service organisations were behind the government’s neglect of the demands of doctors, he said. To another query, he said the organisation was open for talks even now.
KGMOA State secretary Joy George and others were also present at the press conference.
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