THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The government medical college hospitals in the state will witness a total strike on Monday as house surgeons and senior doctors have pledged their support to the striking PG medicos. The house surgeons have called for a 24-hour boycott of work on Monday.
However, the stand-off between the postgraduate medicos and the state government is continuing as the government is not willing for talks unless the medicos end their strike. The medicos have reiterated that unless their demands are met, they will not call off the strike.
With 2,000 odd PG medicos on strike, the functioning of the government medical college hospitals has been severely hit and surgeries in many hospitals are being postponed. With the junior doctors not coming to work, the senior doctors and the house surgeons are bearing the brunt with heavy workload.
As a result the senior doctors and house surgeons have pledged their support to the striking medicos and have urged the state government to settle the strike at the earliest.
“For the past 10 days the postgraduate medical students have been on strike and this has put the house surgeons under tremendous stress. We are being taxed for the absence of the PGs in the hospital duty. We are not ready to take this workload and hence we have decided to boycott hospital duties for 24 hours from 8am on Monday. But this strike will not affect the emergency wings,” said Dr Ashin Anand, state president of Kerala House Surgeons Association.
“Moreover, a female house surgeon was attacked in Alappuzha medical college hospital while on duty. Such incidents are happening when the doctors are working under tremendous stress with lack of manpower. The government is doing nothing to provide protection for us,” said Dr Nila K S, state secretary of house surgeons association.
Meanwhile, the associations of senior doctors like Kerala Government Medical College Teachers Association (KGMCTA) and Kerala Government Postgraduate Medical Teachers Association (KGPMTA) have also pledged their support to the striking medicos.
“It is a fact that the functioning of the hospitals has been severely affected with the strike of the PG medicos. However, the health department is putting the entire burden of work on the senior doctors who are forced to take duty for extra hours at a stretch, which is humanly impossible. The senior doctors are being posted in the casualty, labour room and all other duties which the PG medicos were doing all these days,” said Dr R C Sreekumar of KGMCTA.
The KGMCTA in Thiruvananthapuram medical college hospital has decided to boycott the OP, IP, and elective surgeries on Monday as mark of support to the striking post graduate medicos, said Dr Sreekumar.
