Haryana Government Doctors’ Strike to continue following unfruitful negotiations held at Haryana Bhawan on Thursday after more than six hours of talks between senior Haryana government officers Rajesh Khullar and Health Secretary Sudhir Rajpal. The indefinite strike by around 3,000 government doctors in Haryana, which began on Thursday before noon and continued till late evening failed to provide relief to the patients in government hospitals across the state had severely impacted services in state-run hospitals. According to the sources, in Panipat and Hisar nearly 90% doctors were absent from duty resulting in more than 20 serious surgical operations, about 50 general surgeries and seven postmortems were postponed when patients were rushed to the private hospital to save their lives. Moreover, a large number of ultrasound, X-rays, CT scans and blood & urine tests could not be done due to closure of services in hospitals.
Call for the strike was initiated by the Haryana Civil Medical Services Association (HCMSA) to protest unmet demands. Despite extensive talks between the doctors’ body and the government, no significant progress has been made. Dr. Rajesh Khyalia, HCMSA president stated that the strike would continue as there was no substantial outcome from the second round of discussions with the Additional Chief Secretary Health and not much headway has been made on demands like the assured career promotion (ACP) scheme, so total shutdown of health services will continue. The hunger strike by four doctors including Khyalia will also persist. However, government officers agreed for not to hold direct recruitment for the posts of SMO and to reduce bond amount fro Rs 1 crore to 50 lakh, but Dr Khyalia continued demand for ACP similar to the doctors applicable in central government and Bihar state in order to provide benefits to the doctors after four, 9, 13 and 20 years service.
According to information, the strike led to long queues outside outpatient departments (OPDs) and patients in most of the government hospitals all over in the state, being treated by interns or retired doctors in many hospitals. Health officials claimed alternate arrangements were made to minimise inconvenience to patients. However, many patients reported delays and inadequate care at hospitals in Panipat, Gurugram, Bhiwani, and Hisar where pregnant females suffered a lot and many had to be shifted to private nursing homes. Nursing officers too observed two hours’ pen down strike in hospitals, whereas computer operators strike also going on all over in the state since the past few days.
