TN Doctors' association, Health Minister discuss long pending demands

Chennai: The long pending demands of the government doctors in Tamil Nadu found some resolutions as members of the Federation of Government Doctors’ Association (FOGDA) held a meeting with Health Minister Ma Subramanian on Monday, February 27. 

The FOGDA members had planned a protest on February 25, which was postponed after the health department agreed to hold talks with the doctors. Various issues like the implementation of the Doctors Corpus Fund, working time of primary health centres, and revision of doctor's pay were taken up during the meeting. 

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The federation convenor P. Balakrishnan said, "The Minister has assured us to implement the orders on Doctors Corpus Fund (DCF), which was created to grant financial support to families of the deceased doctors. He has issued instructions to withdraw Government Order 225 that revised the working time of primary health centres." 

Other demands regarding Government Order (GO) 354 for granting pay band 4 at 13 years of service, and separate GOs over increasing pay of postgraduate, diploma and super speciality doctors would be taken up for discussion, said the minister. Reiterating the same, S. Mahalingam of the Tamil Nadu Medical Officers’ Association (TNMOA) said that the minister would take a final decision on reviewing GO 354 and GO 293 (allowances for doctors) in a week. 

Speaking to the Hindu, he said, "The Minister has said that the Chief Minister would hand over the financial assistance under the DCF to the families." 

FODGA members, which include members from Democratic Tamil Nadu Government Doctors Association, Service Doctors and Post Graduates Association, TNMOA and Government All Doctors Association, were part of the meeting on Monday. 

Earlier this month, the Medical Dialogues team had reported on the appeal made by the Legal Coordination Committee (LCC) for government doctors regarding their demand for a salary hike. They had appealed to Chief Minister M.K Stalin for fulfilling their demands before February 7. 

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