Friday, Jul 12, 2002
Friday, Jul 12, 2002 |
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Kerala-Thiruvananthapuram
By Our Staff Reporter
The strike was called by the Medical College Junior Doctors' Forum to demand an increase in stipend and withdrawal of the steep hike in course fees. With over 2,000 post-graduate students and house surgeons going on strike at the Medical Colleges, Casualty, emergency theatres and Labour Room services were adversely affected at all the Medical Colleges. In a statement, the Doctors' Forum said the strike was total and had seriously affected emergency, intensive care and Labour Room services. As post-graduate students routinely do the planning for surgeries, several operations could not be conducted as scheduled, the Forum convener, Vijayamohan said. The out-patient sections and the Casualty were left to be managed with a sole medical officer. The Forum said the situation in the wards too turned acute with medical students deciding to stay away from routine. The Director of Medical Education, K. A. Kumar, said the impact of the strike was contained to the reduction in the number of surgeries undertaken at the Medical Colleges. Service PGs from the Health Services assisted duty officers at the Medical Colleges. The Forum had rejected the proposal put forward at a meeting convened by the Health Minister, P. Sankaran, to restore the 10 per cent annual increment in stipend for the current year. According to the Forum convener Vijayamohan, the stipend, which had been fixed in 1995 when the basic pay of lecturers was Rs. 2,200, had not been revised along with the pay revision of the lecturer scale to around Rs. 8,000. The Forum demand is for fixing the stipend of post-graduate students on par with that of junior lecturers, super specialty students with that of senior lecturers and a stipend of Rs. 5,000 for house surgeons. It has also demanded withdrawal of the hike in course fees and for measures to improve basic infrastructure of post-graduate courses as directed by the Medical Council of India. As part of intensifying the stir, the Forum has called for a 72-hour strike from July 17 if the demands are not met by then. House surgeons' demand The Kerala House Surgeons Association has urged the Government to implement the `just' demands of the Junior Doctors' Forum without delay and avert a breakdown of patient care at the Medical Colleges. In a statement, the Association leaders, Sibi Kurien Philip and Mohammed Shafi, said that the services at the Casualty, Labour Room and operation theatres had come to standstill on account of the 24-hour token strike. The stir would be intensified on July 17 with postgraduates and house surgeons launching a 72-hour strike that would be followed by an indefinite strike from July 25.
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