Tamil Nadu: Federation of Government Doctors' Associations holds protest over promotions, pay revision

Chennai: Around 1000 government doctors, including members of the Federation of Government Doctors' Associations (FOGDA), protested near the Chennai District Collector, relating to their long pending demand for periodical pay revision and other issues.  

Medical Dialogues team had earlier reported that a few weeks back, various government doctors in Chennai had worn demand badges to work as part of their efforts to bring the government's attention to some of their long pending demands, including salary rises and long staff working hours. At that time, the doctors were planning to hold a protest in Chennai regarding this. 

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They asked the government to consider their charter of demands easily. The convener of FOGDA, P. Balakrishnan, said, "The long-pending demand of the Tamil Nadu government doctors, the revision of Government Order No. 354, which guarantees the pay band IV at the end of 12 years, which was supposed to be implemented in the year 2017, has not been implemented till date. This has caused great disappointment and frustration among government doctors. When the private hospitals hesitated, we government doctors stood up to fight COVID-19 with sacrifice and dedication, and thousands of precious lives were saved."

The current rule allows the MBBS doctors to upgrade to the pay band IV at the end of 20 years. The doctors said that the DMK-led government of M Karunanidhi had brought a government order for this which was yet to be implemented. 

They also demanded the government revise the recent order, which changed the duty timings of health workers at primary health centres (PHCs). The duty timings were recently changed from 9 a.m. and 4 p.m to 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. through a government order which was issued nearly a month ago, reports The New Indian Express. 

The doctors further alleged that the order of the revised timeline would affect them as many of the doctors are also engaged in field activities and on-call duties in addition to the work in the health centers, reports the Hindu. The Medical Dialogues team had earlier reported about the protest by the Tamil Nadu Government Doctors' Association (TNGDA) in front of the Tirunelveli Medical College Hospital premises at Palayamkottai against the government order directing an extension in the working hours of Primary Health Centres. 

Further, criticizing the Doctors Corpus Fund (DCF), which was introduced in March 2020 for the families of the doctors who died on duty, the protesters said that around 11,000 doctors were enrolled in the scheme, but no funds have been released to any of the beneficiaries yet.  

Also Read:Tamil Nadu: Govt Doctors Association protest against increase in PHC'S working hours