Punjab doctors on two-day strike from tomorrow

Chandigarh: The Punjab Civil Medical Services Association (PCMS), a body representing a large number of government doctors in the state, have decided to proceed on a two-day strike across the state tomorrow to protest the recent transfers of doctors.

The decision taken at a state body meeting of the Association held at Ludhiana is likely to hit the health services, mainly at at primary health centres and the civil hospitals, which are run by the health department. The PCMS is protesting the recent decision of the Punjab Government to transfer 523 specialist doctors across the state. The state`s health department had transferred the doctors on Tuesday to facilitate upgrade of 100 hospitals in the state. According to the Association`s patron Dr R S Buttar and president Hardeep Singh, the doctors would not provide outdoor patient care services or do any postmortem examination. However, the doctors would provide emergency services and delivery services to pregnant women. Meanwhile, Ashok Nayyar, Punjab Health Services Director, here today made an appeal to the doctors that instead of going on strike the doctors must come forward and bring to the notice of the Health Minister, Principal Secretary or the Director Health any genuine cases where they feel the transfers have been unjustified. Nayyar urged the doctors not to adopt the path of agitation, especially when the Health Minister Madan Mohan Mittal himself has assured the doctors that the department was open to reconsider the genuine cases brought to its notice. The sole reason for these transfers is to strengthen the health services in selected 100 health institutions in the state and provide adequate specialists services, he added. Meanwhile, Punjab Congress President Partap Singh Bajwa today condemned mass transfers of the doctors and sought immediate solution to the grievances of health staff including para-medical staff working in rural hospitals. "Total chaos prevails in government departments and employees are forced to go on strike due to non-redressal of their demands," Bajwa alleged in a statement here. Questioning the rationale behind the large scale transfers of doctors, he alleged that number of senior doctors have already resigned after being "ill-treated". PTI