The Haryana Civil Medical Services Association (HCMS) which represents government doctors in the State went on strike today in view of their various demands including the formation of a specialist cadre for them and a career progression scheme that ensures parity with their Central government and Bihar state. The strike adversely affected services such as OPD, emergency, postmortem and surgeries in State-run hospitals. The association called for a shutdown of health services in government hospitals to protest against the non-fulfilment of long pending doctors’ demands, association president Dr. Rajesh Khyalia said. On July 23, four association members, including Dr. Khyalia, also started an indefinite hunger strike in front of the office of the Health Services director general in Panchkula.

Dr Khyalia said that in-spite of several meetings with Sudhir Rajan, state health secretary no action has been taken by the state government, Information reveals that Chief Minister Nayab Saini has now directed chief senior secretary Rajesh Khullar to have a meeting with HCMS office bearers on Thursday. According to HCMS office bearers they have agreed to attend the meeting and in case doctors demands will not be entertained the indefinite strike by the doctors would continue this time. The other demands of the doctors include no direct recruitment of senior medical officers and reduction in the bond amount for postgraduate courses from rupees one crore to 50 thousand and direct recruitment of SMOs.

Dr Khyalia said, on the government’s invitation for talks on Thursday,we will attend the meeting but if there is no outcome, then our strike will continue indefinitely. At many places, including Panipat and Gurugram, long queues of patients were seen in outpatient departments (OPDs) of district hospitals, with many saying they were told that the doctors were on strike. At a few places, some patients in OPDs said they were attended to by doctors undergoing postgraduate training, those doing internship and retired doctors.Talking to media persons, Dr. Khyalia said, over the past several months, doctors associations have been given repeated assurances pertaining to doctors’ various demands but those remain unfulfilled, so, the association has decided to observe a total shutdown of health services in government hospitals including OPD, emergency, post-mortem from Thursday.

Information reveals, on July 18, HCMS members were assured by the Additional Chief Secretary, health, that a notification would be issued before July 24 pertaining to two demands, assured career progression and the bond issue but nothing happened when we had told the government a month ago that we would be compelled to shut down all services from July 25 if the demands were not met. In a letter to the association on Wednesday, Health Minister Kamal Gupta urged the doctors to consider the impact of their strike on the general public. He said, the issue has been taken seriously by the government and recently, he had a productive meeting with the Chief Minister and other higher officers to discuss these matters extensively, recognising the importance of demands and are actively working towards a resolution that will be satisfactory to both parties.

The government hospitals in Haryana grappling with shortage of specialist doctors. On the direct recruitment of senior medical officers, the association said it would block the growth of hundreds of medical officers awaiting promotion to the post after completion of 20 years or more of service. The doctors’ association have pointed out that of the 3,900 posts of Medical Officer (MO) 1,100 (over 28%) are vacant out of 636 posts of Senior Medical Officer (SMO), 250 (close to 40%) are vacant, and out of eight posts of Director, five are lying vacant. Despite approval from the CM, the proposal for a specialist cadre has been stuck. Dr Khyalia said, most of the time the doctors are forced to work in double shifts and specialist doctors are deployed in night duty or in postmortem duty. The association further said the file for the routine promotion of doctors from MO to SMO has been delayed for the past one and a half years, with doctors who joined as MOs in 2002 still awaiting promotion. The doctors are also seeking a hike in conveyance allowance from Rs 500 per month to Rs 3,000 per month.