The King George Hospital (KGH) authorities deployed 450 post graduate doctors at the out-patient and other wards to cater to the needs of the patients on Tuesday as the government doctors of KGH and Andhra Medical College (AMC) launched a flash strike to press for their demands.
Around 450 of the 600 post-graduate doctors and Heads of Departments were engaged as the protesting governnment doctors insisted that they would not attend to their duties at out-patient care unit, barring casualty, labour, trauma and Intensive Care Units.
Though two groups of doctors belonging to the AP Government Doctors’ Association (APGDA) were a divided lot over the timing of going on the flash strike in Visakhapatnam, a majority of the doctors took part in the sit-in protest.
They demanded time-bound promotions, implementation of Seventh Pay Revision Commission and not to absorb the contract doctors as associate professors and professors under the purview of the Directorate of Medical Education.
Time-bound promotion
“We are not against regularising the jobs of contract doctors at Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS), Srikakulam. We are only opposed to their posting as associate professors and professors as with this move, many of us with more seniority will lose the prospects of promotions,” said Dr. S. Dhanyasri, general secretary of Andhra Pradesh Government Doctors’ Association.
Earlier in the day, the KGH and AMC authorities warned the striking doctors of disciplinary action as they boycotted their assigned duties.
“We have made all arrangements to ensure normal functioning of healthcare services at the hospital. Be it emergency or OP ward, not attending to the patients amounts to violation of the service rules. We have been keeping the higher-ups posted about the prevailing situation,” said KGH Superintendent Dr. G. Arjuna.
