Demand for Dynamic Assured Career Progression: Tamil Nadu Govt Doctors threaten indefinite strike

Chennai: Demanding time-bound promotion for government doctors and teaching faculty in the state, doctors under the aegis of Tamil Nadu Government Doctors Association has threatened to stop work as well as teaching till their demands are met.

The issue has been a long-standing demand of doctors for a long time. Medical Dialogues had earlier reported about the matter concerning disparity in the pay scale of the sate's government doctors which had been put forward by the Association for the last three years. Their demands include uniformity in salary and promotion as per the Dynamic Assured Career Progression (DACP) norms.

The doctors are demanding proper implementation of the DACP scheme with pay band-4 at the end of 13 years of service, maintenance of doctors' posts in accordance with the number of patients, 50% service quota in PG medical admissions and counselling for PG postings.

Last year, the doctors had boycotted outpatient services demanding time-bound promotions and salaries on par with their counterparts in other States and at the Centre.

Read Also: Tamil Nadu: 18,000 Govt doctors on OPD BOYCOTT over salary, promotions

This July, government doctors in Tamil Nadu protested against the state government, demanding the implementation of DACP.

Read Also: Tamil Nadu: Government doctors go on hunger strike over poor pay; to boycott OPD services on July 18

Pointing out their dilemma, the association had described that the salary for doctors in the state and central services is the same when they join duty, but doctors in central government services receive promotions in four, nine, 13 and 20 years, compared to eight, 15, 17 and 20 years in the state government.

Doctors in government service also get a salary that is lower than lecturers or professors at arts/science colleges, although government doctors work for at least 50 hours a week compared to 32 hours of the teaching faculty.

Earlier this month, in a letter to the Health Secretary, the association noted that the government had agreed to "favourably solve" the demands in six weeks, reports The Hindu.

"It was disappointing to note that even after the end of six weeks on October 8, the issues were neither solved, nor was there reasonable progression," it said.

With the issue not being resolved by the government, the doctors recently once again resorted to strike. With the protests already on, the doctors have threatened of indefinite strike from October 25.

The recent protest held at Government Rajaji Hospital saw doctors raise slogans such as "higher achievements but lesser pay" and "reduce unfair discrepancies in pay".

TNGDA state president Dr K Senthil told TOI that they were forced to stage the protest since the state government had not responded to their long-pending demands to reduce the number of years for time-bound promotions. "We have decided that from October 24, we will focus only on patient care and not take any classes. On October 29, we will be going for double duty so that we can have a full-fledged protest on October 30 and 31," he said. He added that the strike will not affect critical patients as emergency care teams will be formed to take care of critical cases in the government hospitals, PHCs and taluk hospitals.