Doctors’ association to boycott all non-patient related activities until demands are met

The Federation of Government Doctors Association (FOGDA) has called for boycott of all non-patient related activities until their demands are met by the State government. They will boycott all official meetings, review meetings convened by the District Collectors/heads of institutions including on Chief Minister’s Comprehensive Health Insurance Scheme (CMCHIS) and maternal death audits and exit from all official WhatsApp groups.

Following a meeting with Health Secretary Supriya Sahu on Tuesday, FOGDA, in its emergency executive committee meeting, decided to go ahead with non-cooperation activities until their demands are looked into. They expressed their strong displeasure against some of the health officials and Collectors for their “undignified behaviour” towards doctors.

The federation urged the officials to improve the workforce of doctors and paramedics according to patient census and not according to National Medical Commission norms. They requested to redistribute the existing sanctioned posts of 500 professors, 450 associate professors and 600 assistant professor/senior resident/tutor posts in Government Order 354 dated from 2009. They stressed the need for increasing the number of doctors - obstetricians and gynaecologists, paediatricians and anaethetists - in Comprehensive Emergency Obstetric and Newborn Care Centres. The federation urged the government to fill up the vacant posts at the earliest and to create supernumerary posts to accommodate nonservice postgraduates for one year bond service.

The doctors stressed that maternal death audits should not be conducted in the presence of patient relatives and it should not be a fault-finding exercise. FOGDA also demanded that no official meetings should be held after duty hours and called for detailed discussion on GO 354 and unfulfilled demands in GO 293 (allowances for doctors) such as allowance for all Primary Health Centre medical officers and Tamil Nadu Accident and Emergency Care Initiative allowance for all medical officers attending emergency services routinely. The doctors also raised the problems faced in getting CMCHIS funds.

Published - November 28, 2024 12:40 am IST