Unhappy with the government’s failure to honour its commitment to provide specialty cadre, government doctors, under the banner of the Kerala Government Medical Officers Association (KGMOA), have decided to stage a dharna in front of the office of the Director of Health Services on Wednesday.
M. Muraleedharan, honorary general secretary, of the association said here on Tuesday that the government had also failed to provide adequate protection to doctors and hospitals from public fury for alleged medical negligence. Proof of it was attacks reported from Chittoor in Palakkad, Rajakumari in Idukki and Kanhagad in Kasaragod district, he said.
Dr. Muraleedharan said the government’s failure to honour its commitment to provide specialty cadre had led to severe scarcity of specialist doctors in North Kerala. The shortage of specialists was as much as 62 in Kannur, 27 in Wayanad, 16 in Kozhikode, 78 in Kasaragod, 21 in Malappuram and 55 in Palakkad, according to the KGMOA.
The association also alleged that the government had not so far corrected the anomalies in salary that arose at the time of pay revision though an agreement on this issue had been reached between the government and the KGMOA.
The association would continue its agitation if the government continued to be indifferent to the doctors’ demands, he said.
