Haryana Govt doctors go on strike for 2nd time in a week demanding reduction in bond amount

CHANDIGARH: Government doctors in Haryana went on a daylong strike on Friday to press their demands for formation of a specialist cadre and a reduction in the bond amount for postgraduate courses, impacting outpatient department (OPD) services in some hospitals. This is the second time this week that government doctors in the state have gone on a strike.

They first went on a strike on Wednesday. The protesting doctors resumed work Friday evening after the authorities assured them of a meeting with the health minister on Monday. The strike was observed on a call of the Haryana Civil Medical Services Association (HCMS), a body representing government doctors in Haryana.

Meanwhile, in view of the strike, the Health Department revoked all types of leaves for doctors, mobilizing around 3,000 doctors to ensure healthcare services are least impacted, according to an official statement on Friday. Health Minister Anil Vij said the health department has mobilized approximately 3,000 doctors including consultants, senior consultants, National Health Mission doctors, medical officers from medical colleges, and community health officers.

HCMS general secretary Dr Anil Yadav said, "We have resumed our normal duties. Further course of action will now depend on the outcome of Monday's meeting." "We are hopeful that all our demands will be met," he said. He, however, said during the day OPD services remained suspended in government health institutions while emergency services functioned as usual.

"In view of the assurance of a meeting with the government pertaining to our demands and keeping in view the larger public interest, we did not proceed with a complete shutdown of services and emergency services were attended to on Friday," he said.

Demands of Haryana doctors

He said that on Friday, a meeting was held with Director General of Health Services (DGHS) of Haryana. According to the official statement, the meeting of the HCMS representatives with DGHS Randeep Singh Poonia, in which senior officials of the health department were also present, addressed various demands of the doctors' body, such as the establishment of a specialist cadre, amendments to the PG policy, pay revisions.

During the meeting, HCMSA office-bearers were informed that the specialist cadre has been approved while the state government is considering pay revisions and PG policy amendments. The demands of the association are receiving top priority for resolution, it said.

Notably, HCMS had on Wednesday said that doctors would go on an indefinite strike from Friday with a complete shutdown of all services if the government did not accept their demands. Among the doctors' demands are formation of a specialist cadre for doctors, reduction in the bond amount for postgraduate courses and a dynamic assured career progression scheme at par with central government doctors.