Odisha govt doctors boycott OPD service for 2 hours as part of protest movement

Bhubaneswar, Jan 7 (PTI) Over 6,000 government doctors under the banner of Odisha Medical Services Association (OMSA) on Wednesday boycotted OPD service for two hours to demand fulfilment of their charter of demands, including filling up of vacant posts.

The state government on Tuesday had announced the doctors' agitation as illegal for disrupting essential medical services. As per the provision of the ESMA, strikes in the form of cessation of work by doctors, nursing officers, pharmacists, paramedics, and technicians have been banned for six months with effect from Tuesday.

The OMSA doctors boycotted OPD service from 9 am to 11 am across the state. The protest is part of their ongoing movement pressing for fulfilment of their 10-point charter of demands. Their demands include parity in pay with central government employees, proportional restructuring of cadres across all grades, additional financial incentives for super-specialists and performance-based incentives.

"Invoking Odisha Essential Services (Maintenance) Act, 1988 (ESMA) on peaceful strike by doctors is considered as part of an oppression, intolerance and bureaucratic interference. The government must address the issues and resolve doctors' genuine problems," OMSA president Kishore Mishra said. The OMSA president said that the boycott of OPD service for two hours was a symbolic protest. The doctors, after the boycott hour from 9 am to 11 am, attended to patients. The emergency service, surgeries and indoor treatment are also being provided by OMSA-affiliated doctors. They just boycott the OPD service demanding fulfilment of certain genuine demands, he said.

The OMSA demanded Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi's intervention into the matter, even as Health and Family Welfare Minister Mukesh Mahaling appealed to the doctors to call off the strike.

The state government has also constituted a high-level committee to consider the 10-point charter of demands of doctors.

The doctors' OPD boycott agitation since December 26 has impacted health service in rural and remote areas.

The doctors launched the OPD boycott for one hour from December 26 and later extended it to two hours from 9 am to 11 am starting January 5.

The OMSA maintained that the state has a little over 6,000 government doctors against a sanctioned strength of 15,776, leaving more than 50 per cent of posts vacant. "This is putting additional pressure on the existing doctors," the OMSA said. PTI AAM AAM RG