Kerala docs threaten to intensify stir

Kochi, Jun 20 (UNI) Government doctors in Kerala, currently on an indefinite 'non-cooperation strike' since April 17 seeking to rectify the anomalies in pay revision, today threatened to intensify the stir by skipping more duties.

Kerala Government Medical Officers Association said they would hold a day-long fast before the Secretariat on July one, the Doctors Day and skip attending patients in pay wards to press their demands.

''Treatments are being given at both out-patient and in-patient departments right now without any negligence. However, we are not attending medical camps, VIP duties, festival duties, implementation of schemes in local bodies. We are also boycotting all review meetings as part of the non-cooperation strike,'' Association Secretary Junaid Rahman and President Dr Sunny Orathel told a press conference here.

They alleged the medical officers were let down during the last pay revision announced by the state government in March this year.

Compared to the administrative officers, secretaries and officials in other departments, the doctors were given a raw deal, even lower scales in some cases, they claimed.

''Now a large number of the doctors, specialists in particular, are leaving the service for better jobs in the private sector, pushing the health sector into a severe crisis,'' they said while pressing for good pay packages to attract doctors to the public sector.

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