Date:11/11/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/11/11/stories/2008111160450400.htm

Karnataka - Bangalore

Government doctors’ strike affects patients across State

Staff Reporter

Demand for regularisation of doctors on contract

— Photo: K. Murali Kumar

Needs to be met: Government doctors protesting in support of their demands in Bangalore on Monday.

Bangalore: The functioning of Government-run hospitals all over the State was affected on Monday as all Government doctors went on strike demanding regularisation of the services of doctors appointed on contract basis.

More than 1,500 members of the Karnataka State Government Medical Officers’ Association (KGMOA), including women medical officers from various districts, staged a protest demonstration in Banappa Park.

In Bangalore, patients in most of the out-patient departments and wards of Government hospitals including Victoria Hospital, Bowring and Lady Curzon Hospital, Vani Vilas Hospital, Minto Eye Hospital, K.C. General, Institute of Nephrology and Urology and Kidwai were affected. Doctors in all these hospitals and primary health centres did not attend to patients except emergency cases. According to T. B. Satyanarayana, president of KGMOA, though the Chief Minister had called the doctors for talks, “the response was not satisfactory”. Hence, the doctors were continuing their strike on Tuesday, he said and stressed that the strike would continue till their demands were met. The other demands included better pay and all benefits on a par with regular doctors and an end to “atrocities” against medical staff, he said. The members have also submitted their resignation letters en masse to the association president on Monday. “If the Government does not consider our demands, we will not hesitate to quit our jobs,” Sanjeev, a member said.