Medical college doctors defer their strike plans by a week following talks with govt.

The Kerala Government Medical College Teachers’ Association (KGMCTA), which had declared an indefinite boycott of academic activities in all government medical colleges across the State from Tuesday, has deferred their strike by a week.

The doctors decided to defer their strike following the assurances they received at a meeting with the Health and Finance Ministers late evening on Monday.

KGMCTA leaders said in a statement that their proposed indefinite boycott of academic activities from Tuesday, and the subsequent plans to intensify the strike by staying away from patient-care activities were being postponed for a week as all demands put forth by the doctors were taken up during the discussions with the Ministers.

“The government has sought some time for implementing the demands we raised. If by January 19, the Government does not issue orders regarding our demands, the strike will continue as planned,” a KGMCTA spokesperson said.

KGMCTA had announced on Monday morning that academic activities in all government medical colleges across Kerala would grind to a halt from Tuesday. It had said that patient-care services in outpatient (OP) clinics in all medical college hospitals would also be boycotted from next week.

KGMCTA had said that they waited patiently for months together for the government to resolve several pressing issues regarding the pay revision anomalies of medical college doctors and the acute shortage of human resources in medical college hospitals, and that they were being forced to go on an indefinite strike.

They said that the State’s public health system was facing an unprecedented crisis with the government medical colleges on the verge of a collapse, because of the short-sighted policies, unscientific planning and administrative apathy of the government

Medical college doctors were being bogged down by an overwhelming patient load and acute shortage of hands in various departments across institutions on one side, while on the other, administrative apathy towards even the legitimate demands of doctors was becoming mentally and physically exhausting.

Doctors warned that the crisis in the making in the State’s tertiary-care hospitals was a threat to the State’s health security as a whole.

They pointed out that although medical colleges have been established in all districts, many of these institutions were not equipped to provide even basic secondary-level services.

The newly established medical colleges in Kasaragod, Wayanad, and Idukki have the bare minimum faculty prescribed by the National Medical Commission for teaching requirements alone and not to cater to the demands of the increasing patient load, they added.

Even in the older medical college hospitals, staff shortage is acute and this is now resulting in long waiting periods for elective surgeries, diagnostic scans and special procedures, leading to poor patient outcomes and severe financial distress to those forced to go to the private sector.

According to KGMCTA, there are 24 unfilled vacancies of Professors, Associate Professors (64) and Assistant Professors (287), with crucial departments like Gynaecology (57 vacancies) having not seen entry cadre appointments since 2017. They pointed out that extreme workloads increase the chances of human error, and when there are adverse events, the government, instead of addressing the systemic failures, plays to the gallery by suspending doctors.

The Association pointed out that because of the low pay scale at the entry level, extreme workload, unpaid arrears in pay revision since 2016, and denial of eligible Dearness Allowance payments, medical education service was no longer looked upon as an attractive career option by young doctors.

KGMCTA demanded that the government address the pay anomalies at the entry cadre in medical education service, and that the long-pending pay revision and DA arrears of doctors be released immediately. They also demanded that the faculty shortages and inadequate infrastructure in new medical colleges be addressed without delay.