Demands not met, doctors on warpath

Hoshiarpur, September 2

Despite the ongoing talks between the government and doctors for the last 15 days, the government has neither issued any notification on the issue of ACP (time-bound promotion), nor any security guard has been appointed in hospitals.

The is anger brewing among doctors seeing no arrangements on the ground level despite the assurance of security arrangements by the Health Minister.

The Punjab Civil Medical Service Association has written a letter to the Director and warned the department that the doctors will boycott monthly reports, benchmark indicators and other office work starting from today even before the proposed strike on September 9.

They would not participate in any departmental meeting till the demands were met.

A memorandum of demands was handed over to the Civil Surgeon, Hoshiarpur, Dr Pawan Kumar Shagotra. Association members Dr Harpunit Kaur, Dr Jagdeep Singh, Dr Sahildeep, Dr Sanam Sandhu, Dr Navjot Sandhu, Dr Sushant, Dr Saurav Sharma and Dr Hitesh Aggarwal were present on the occasion.

Health Minister Dr Balbir Singh, during a one-day strike across Punjab, had assured the doctors that security arrangements would be ensured in every government hospital this month. The department had prepared the expenditure budget and sent it to the Finance Department, but till now, the additional security arrangements at the ground level were still not made.

The association said at the meeting that the department had also assured them that the already issued time-bound ACP system would not discontinue and the government would soon decide on a notification to restore it, but the silence of the government showed that it was not serious about health workers.