4,000 govt doctors go on strike in Bihar

Patna, Feb 7 (UNI) Medical services in all hospitals in Bihar came to a halt this morning as about 4,000 odd government doctors went on a two-days-strike from midnight last night to press their demands.

Sympathising with a large number of patients all over the state who had been facing severe inconvenience in the wake of the wild cat strike, State Health Services Association President Ramnagina Prasad Singh, however, blamed the alleged lackadaisical attitudes of the state government in meeting the doctors' long standing demands despite a judgement in this regard by the Patna High Court.

''Instead of sympathetically considering the doctors' demands, which included immediate upgradation of their service conditions to bring them on a par with the Central government medicos, the Health minister was busy in highlighting the earlier government decisions, taken about a decade ago,'' Dr Singh complained.

Also cricising the earlier government decision to exclude the MBBS doctors from becoming beneficiaries of the revised pay scale structures from 1996, Dr Singh said repeated pleas by the government medicos to improve their pay structures and other service conditions had fallen into deaf ears.

Stating that resorting to the 48 hour statewide strike was the last option for the 'hapless' doctors to press for their demands peacefully, he said if the health ministry still did not concede to their demands within the next few days,they would resort to an indefinite strike from February 21.

Meanwhile, the outdoor patients in different government hospitals across the state had been facing severe problems in the absence of doctors in all departments except emergency as a result of the 48 hour strike.

UNI ABA/ANJ SK GC1507