Docs protest, patients bear the brunt

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, July 12

Patients and their attendants faced inconvenience at the Government Medical College here on Monday owing to the doctors’ strike throughout the day. They are protesting against the 6th Punjab Pay Commission report.

They boycotted the out-patient department (OPD) services, operation theatre services, teaching of the medical students apart from medico-legal cases and post-mortem.

Services such as emergency, emergency medico-legal cases and Covid care remained unaffected. Visitors who had come from far-off areas, including those from other districts, had to return empty-handed, as they learnt about the protest.

Many patients and their attendants said they were not aware of the ongoing protest. “The government should either ask employees to end the protest or accept their demands. The poor cannot afford going to private hospitals, which is the reason they come here,” said Satwinder Singh, who had come from Kahnuwan area in Gurdaspur.

Caught unawares

• The full-day protest by doctors resulted in trouble for patients as they had to return without getting any consultation
• Apart from OPD, surgeries, medico-legal and post-mortem works were also affected
• The protest also affected teaching of medical students
• A large number of people from other districts as Tarn Taran, Ferozepur, Kapurthala, Gurdaspur and Pathankot visit GMC daily
• Many said they were not aware of the protest before they reached the hospital

Another visitor, Sanjeev Kumar said he came to know about the protest after reaching the hospital. “I took an off from work to bring my ailing mother. Now, I will have to come again some other day,” he said, adding that the government and the hospital staff were indifferent towards the suffering of the poor people.

“It is a lot of trouble for a sick person to travel and then go home without seeing a doctor,” said Gurmeet Kaur from Tarn Taran.

Meanwhile, doctors staged a dharna outside the OPD complex and raised slogans against the state government. The leaders of Punjab State Medical and Dental Teachers’ Association, which is spearheading the protest, threatened to intensify their protest if the government failed to act. Dr Mridu Grover, president, PSMDTA, Amritsar, said: “The association has already announced to intensify the protest after July 20 if the issue is not resolved till then.” She said the government had forced the employees to initiate the protest by harming their interests.

The veterinary doctors also staged a protest at Verka on the issue and burnt the copies of the pay panel report. Veterinary Officers’ Association president Gagandeep Singh Dhillon said they demand that the NPA be restored and be part of the basic pay.

Protests cripple work in Tarn Taran govt offices

The strike call by doctors, vets, BDPOs, MGNREGS staff, DC office employees crippled the state machinery on Monday.

Doctors on the first day of the three-day pen-down strike abstained from work on Monday and held protests against the recommendations of the 6th Pay Commission report.

PCMSA state body had given the call in this regard. The veterinary doctors under the leadership of Dr Sukhraj Singh lodged a protest here on Monday.

Patients, specially from the down-trodden sections, were a harried lot due to the strike of the doctors but the state government was quite unconcerned about it.

Dr Jaspreet Singh, president PCMSA, while addressing the protesting doctors at the local district level Civil Hospital, said as per the recommendations of the 6th Pay Commission, non-practising allowance (NPA) has been reduced from 25 per cent to 20 per cent and moreover it has been delinked from the basic pay, which will result in financial loss to doctors. The other doctors’ associations, too, are supporting the agitation. The BDPOs, too, staged a dharna in front of the local DDPO’s office and the employees of the MGNREGS, too, staged dharna in front of the office of the Additional Deputy Commissioner (Development).

The employees of all other departments will protest in the district on Tuesday on a large scale.