Tripura doctors seek salary, service reforms after private practice ban

Agartala: Doctors at Agartala Government Medical College (AGMC) and Govind Ballabh Pant (GBP) Hospital said they were not against the recently imposed ban on private practice, but urged the government to also address their long-pending demands, including the revision of service rules, restructuring of salaries and time-bound promotions.

Agartala Medical College Teachers' Forum president Dr Tapan Majumder told PTI that since the government wants to transform the state's largest hospital into an institute like AIIMS-New Delhi, salary structures and other perquisites should also be comparable.

The government's decision has affected around 350 doctors working at the facility. They stopped attending private clinics from Sunday, causing inconvenience to patients.

Amid the government's decision, an emergency meeting of the All Tripura Government Doctors' Association (ATGDA), AGMC Teachers' Forum and the Indian Medical Association (IMA) was held.

Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that following the Tripura Government's decision to ban private practice by faculty members and medical officers at Agartala Government Medical College and GB Pant Hospital, a forum of superspecialist doctors has written to the hospital authorities, describing the move as ''unilateral''.

"At the meeting, we decided to meet the chief minister and the secretary of health services to raise our issues regarding the government decision," Majumder said.

He said doctors were not opposed to the ban on private practice but expected the government to address their pending service-related demands.

ATGDA general secretary Dr Kanak Chowdhury said doctors were committed to improving healthcare services to meet public expectations.

"Currently, both the CM and the secretary of health services are outside the state. Once they return, we will meet them with our issues and are expecting a resolution at the earliest," he said, reports PTI.