Doctors’ assn softens stand, to boycott OPD for first half only

From its earlier decision of complete shutdown of medical services from Monday, the Punjab Civil Medical Services (PCMS) Association has softened its stand and now announced that it would boycott OPD services during the first half of the day only.

The association has, however, stated that doctors would not conduct any elective surgeries. The services like post-mortems, medico legal examinations, judicial medical examinations and court evidences would remain unaffected throughout the protest.

The association functionaries stated that the decision to dilute the protest had been taken on the insistence of government functionaries who had asked for some more time.

Amritsar PCMSA president Sumitpal Singh said, “The association has announced to boycott OPD for first half of the day instead of the entire day to show that we are ready for talks.” He said the association had made it clear that assurances would not help in ending the protest as they want issuance of notification on the issue of assured career progression.

The association would also boycott services like medical examinations for driving and arms licences, medical fitness examination for recruitments, dope tests, VIP duties and other administrative assignments from Monday.

“As a last resort if the government failed to accept the demands, the association would have to boycott medico legal examinations after September 16. The association hopes that the government would resolve the issue much earlier,” said Dr Madhur Poddar, general secretary, PCMSA, Amritsar.

He said the government had sought time for discussions with the finance department and a subsequent call up for a one-to-one meeting between the PCMSA and the Cabinet sub-committee headed by Finance Minister Harpal Cheema on September 11. He further said the association would announce complete shutdown of OPD from September 12 if the government failed to take a decision by then.