Pay hike, staffing fix, day off- TN Doctors threaten series of protests over pending demands

Chennai: The government doctors in Tamil Nadu have decided to stage a series of protests from March 11, 2025, over their unmet demands including a pay hike, appointment of doctors as per the number of patients and day off for postgraduate medical students.

Raising their issues to the Government the doctors have planned to commence their protests with a rally from Mettur to Chennai. Further, the doctors will represent their issues to the Chief Minister and the National Medical Commission (NMC), reports The Hindu.

Sending emails to them on March 18, the doctors will urge them to fulfil their demands. Thereafter, on March 19, the government doctors are planning to hold a demonstration in the city.

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As per the latest media report by The Hindu, the State President of the Legal Coordination Committee (LCC) for Government doctors has informed that the demonstration will be held at 3 p.m. on the premises of the Directorate of Medical Education.

The doctors are demanding that the Government appoint doctors as per the number of patients in the government hospitals. Further, they are also demanding a government job for the wife of the late Dr. Vivekanandan, who died while in service during the pandemic.

LCC has said that it had been urging the Government for pay-hike, as per Government order 354 and it said that not just doctors, but the postgraduates were also overworked and demanded adequate day-offs for the postgraduate students.

It has been alleged by committee that even though the State Government has been working on starting new medical colleges, it has not posted adequate medical personnel in government hospitals and primary health centres.

Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that the Tamil Nadu Government Doctors Association had urged the State Health Department to take immediate action to fill up 1500 vacant doctor posts across the State. Representatives from both TNGDA and the Federation of Government Doctors Association (FOGDA) held separate discussions with the Health Secretary P. Senthil Kumar and other senior officials to address the issue.

During the meeting, TNGDA raised multiple concerns, including the long-pending doctor vacancies, delays in promotions and transfer counselling for associate professors and professors, and the need for a voluntary retirement scheme (VRS) for doctors. Meanwhile, the FOGDA pressed for the proper implementation of Government Order (G.O.) 354, which pertains to pay scales and promotions, and also demanded a Rs.3,000 allowance for medical officers with MBBS qualifications who were not covered under G.O. 293.

Also Read: TN Doctors' bodies demand filling of 1500 vacant posts, better pay under GO 354