Punjab Govt Doctors to go on indefinite strike from January 20 over unmet demands

PCMSA General Body Meeting was held on 1st January 2025 to discuss these pressing issues, and it has been unanimously decided to “resume” the call for suspension of services from 20th January 2025 in the face of non-issuance of notifications on reinstatement of DACPs in the exact form and manner in which it was before 01/07/2022 and the security framework roll out.

The association also demanded adequate security arrangements at all 24x7 centres of the State, in accordance with the Supreme Court guidelines, for providing safe and conducive environments to all healthcare workers, thereby ensuring optimum delivery of healthcare services across the state. 

Talking to Medical Dialogues, Dr Akhil Sarin, President of PCMS, stated, “Currently, after the current round of recruitment, the deficiencies stand at around 54% for Specialists and around 43% for MBBS MOs, thereby indicating an impending public health crisis that the government is staring at in the near future. Previously, DACP ensured an equivalent pay scale after serving for 4, 9, and 14 years considering that there were very few promotion avenues that required 20 to 25 years of service but it was temporarily stalled by the finance department in July 2021. However, the facility is being offered to doctors in neighbouring Haryana and Delhi and we deserve to have the same facility.”  

Last year, the association suspended OPD services on September 9th, demanding safety measures, immediate recruitment of 400 doctors, and implementation of the DACP scheme. After the active and positive intervention of the Chief Minister Punjab, a series of one-to-one meetings/talks were held between the DCs and SSPs of all the 23 Districts and the respective District PCMSA heads on 13th September 2024, during which it was unequivocally conveyed to PCMSA, that in line with H’ble Chief Minister’s steadfast commitment towards safeguarding and strengthening the public healthcare of the State, the demands have been unconditionally accepted by the Government and that the needful will be done within the stipulated time frame as committed to by the Cabinet Subcommittee in the meeting held at Punjab Bhawan on 11/09/2024.

Following these meetings, a detailed meeting was held at Punjab Bhawan on 14th September 2024 between the H’ble Health Minister Dr Balbir Singh, ASHFW Sh. Kumar Rahul, Principal Secretary Finance Sh.Ajoy Kumar Sinha and all 23 District PCMSA heads, in which it was strongly reiterated that health being the priority state subject of the current government, as directed to by the Hon’ble Chief Minister Punjab, the requisite budgetary allocations will be made promptly for the roll out a comprehensive security framework within one week and reinstatement of DACPs for PCMS cadre within 12 weeks in the exact form and the manner in which it was applicable before 01/07/2021.

In the joint press conference held immediately after the above meeting at Punjab Bhawan on 14/09/2024, the above commitments were officially announced by the Hon’ble Health Minister and it was strongly reiterated and unambiguously conveyed to PCMSA that the assurances/commitments will be implemented within the stipulated time frame (One week for the security arrangements and 12 weeks for DACP reinstatement). Consequently, acknowledging the stand of the government, PCMSA had “suspended” its call for suspension of services, reposing faith in the commitment made by the Hon’ble Chief Minister, Hon’ble Health Minister, and the Cabinet Sub-committee headed by the Hon’ble Finance Minister.

In a press release, the association stated, “PCMSA is fully aware of the fact that the Health Department led by H’ble Health Minister Dr Balbir Singh, Principal Secretary Health & Family Welfare Sh. Kumar Rahul and DHS Punjab Dr Hitinder Kaur have been persistently and relentlessly following up on these issues, with the Department of Finance full of vigour and intent, and have been intensely engaged in preparing and discussing the budget estimates for the same at war footing. In fact, the response received from the health department officials on all the abovementioned core issues has been overwhelmingly positive and supportive.”

However, even after the lapse of 16 weeks, their efforts could not bear fruits as the notifications regarding the reinstatement of DACPs and the security framework rollout are still awaited with much eagerness and optimism. The doctors also revealed that in the recent round of recruitments of Medical Officers held after a hiatus of nearly four years, around 30% of the selected doctors have not joined the service, thereby compounding the long-standing nemesis of low entry and high attrition/low retention rates of Medical Officers, primarily borne out stalled career progressions and unsafe work environment amongst other factors. Notably, in the last walk-in interviews for specialists held in November 2022, only a small fraction of the total advertised posts were filled in.

With the senior most batch of specialists (currently the 2009 batch, as all the batches before them have already been promoted to the rank of SMOs and above) set to complete their bond period from this year onwards (The first batch left for PG courses in 2012 and joined back as specialists in 2015), the imminent threat of resignations that may follow is highly concerning. It is extremely worrying that even after positively acknowledging these issues during the serial meetings held last year and issuing written as well as official public commitments, these core issues are still left unaddressed due to inadvertent procedural delays in their implementation, pointed out the doctors.

The association further added, “It is extremely unfortunate the only cadre of class-1 officers actually engaged in the on-ground 24x7 high-risk duties, even in the remotest rural areas, has to dig in its heels to safeguard the public health cadre of the State and repeatedly push the government to address the core issues plaguing the public healthcare of the State.”

“Being a pro-people organization, PCMSA feels immense pain and agony in being “forced” to take such stands. However, we strongly believe that in the long run, PCMSA will be remembered for its relentless struggle to save the public healthcare of this State from an imminent collapse,” it stated. While requesting the government to showcase a strong political will in line with its overall commitment towards robust public healthcare, the association stated, that the government should “walk the talk and fulfill its commitment within the stipulated timeframe, thereby ensuring seamless healthcare delivery services to the people of the State in general and in instilling a sense of trust and confidence in the PCMS cadre in particular.”