E-Paper
Haryana: Doctors’ body defers strike after meeting with DGHS
The doctors at the government hospitals had suspended all the OPD services in support of their demands, including formation of a specialist cadre and a reduction in the bond amount for postgraduate courses
Government doctors affiliated to Haryana Civil Medical Services Association (HCMSA) on Friday decided to defer their strike till January 1, 2024, after meeting the officials of the health department in Panchkula.
The doctors at the government hospitals had suspended all the OPD services in support of their demands, including formation of a specialist cadre and a reduction in the bond amount for postgraduate courses.
The Friday meeting was chaired by director general of health services (DGHS) Dr Randeep Singh Poonia and attended by Dr JS Poonia, Dr Manish Bansal and Dr Kuldeep Singh.
“The health services at the hospital will resume immediately and the body members will hold another round of meeting to be chaired by health minister Anil Vij,” said HCMSA president Dr Rajesh Khyalia said.
“The next meeting will also be attended by additional chief secretaries (ACS) health and finance, apart from other officials of the health department,” he told the HT.
Demands considered
On the issue of reduction of PG bond amount, it was conveyed by DGHS that the proposal has been sent to the office of the ACS (health) along with removal of condition of mortgage/bank guarantee of property.
DGHS said that the file for approval to stop direct recruitment ofsenior medical officers will be dealt by the health minister within next 10 days.
It was informed that the file regarding specialist cadre was approved and sent back to ACS (health) by the chief minister’s office for further due processing, while issues like seniority in service will be discussed in the next meeting.
As per the minutes of the meeting, during a telephonic conversation with the DGHS, Vij while asking the doctors to resume work, also expressed his willingness to resolve all the pending demands within a time frame.
DGHS also assured the conversion of the rejected leaves for December 27 and 29, when the strikes were observed by the body, to leaves of kind due, after consulting ACS (health) telephonically.
Health services partially affected
The health services were partially affected in government hospitals across Haryana as the doctors went on an indefinite strike in response to the call given by the HCMSA.
After a meeting with the DGHS on Thursday night, the doctors had assured that life-saving interventions would be done by a team of volunteer doctors in public interest, but the strike would continue. The association had formed a team of doctors that treated emergency cases, labour and postmortems cases.
There was no untoward incident reported across the state. However, inconvenience was suffered by patients. Ashu Kumar, a resident of Farmana village, said that his mother, a patient of pneumonia, had to return without treatment from the civil hospital as the doctors were on strike.
In Rewari, BAMS students were deployed in the out-patient department. Chief medical officer, Dr Surender Yadav, said that he himself checked the patients at the OPD.
At Hisar, the MBBS students handled the OPD services in the civil hospital.
Health minister Anil Vij, in a statement, said that to ensure continuous service for the public, the health department had mobilised approximately 3,000 doctors including consultants, senior consultants, NHM doctors, DNB doctors, medical officers from medical colleges, and community health officers.
(With inputs from Sunil Rahar from Rohtak)
