3 days on, protesting Ludhiana docs start OPD at hospitals’ hallways

In protest against the state government for the implementation of the sixth pay commission, members of the Joint Government Doctors’ Coordination Committee (JGDCC) on Thursday checked patients in the common halls of their respective hospitals

In protest against the state government for the implementation of the sixth pay commission, members of the Joint Government Doctors’ Coordination Committee (JGDCC) on Thursday checked patients in the common halls of their respective hospitals.

Doctors running a parallel OPD at a common hall in civil hospital, Ludhiana, on Thursday. (Gurpreet Singh/HT)

The veterinary doctors also protested in a similar manner and offered their services in the common halls of their hospitals.

The outpatient and inpatient department services, elective surgeries and other non-emergency services remained suspended from Monday to Wednesday as over 400 doctors deployed at the civil hospitals in Ludhiana, Khanna, Jagraon, and 10 community health centres have joined the protest.

However, emergency, Covid, post-mortem and medico/vetro-legal services continued uninterrupted. As the OPD services resumed, a huge rush of patients was witnessed at civil hospital.

Vikram Singh, a neurology patient, who had been struggling to meet the doctors for past three days, said his wait finally ended on Thursday. “The government should address the demands of doctors and resolve the issue. Due to the current situation, it is the patients who are suffering,” he said.

Leading the protest, JGDCC member Dr Varun Saggar said the state’s sixth pay commission has recommended reducing the NPA paid to government doctors from 25% to 20% and delinked it from the basic pay, which is not acceptable to them.

One dies, 16 test positive for Covid

One person died and 16 fresh cases of Covid were reported on Thursday. A total of 87,206 people have tested positive so far, while 2,091 residents of the district have lost their lives to the contagion. Not a single patient from Ludhiana is currently on ventilator support.

The latest fatality was a 81-year-old man from Guru Angad Dev Nagar, who was undergoing treatment at Amritsar.