On Tuesday May3rd 2011, about 5000 doctors from government hospitals in Kerala went on a strike which lasted the entire day with the demand that the irregularity in salaries should be revised and corrected. Out of the 5000 doctors, 4000 of them belong to the Kerala State Health Service and 1000 doctors belonged to the Employees State Insurance Sector. The strike has been called for by the Kerala Government Medical Officers Association. The strike has not affected the emergency medical cases in the hospitals. A review has been called for to check the services given to the doctors which includes their accommodation and pension. If in case their demands are not met as per needed, the doctors have threatened to go on an unlimited strike. Ayurvedic, homeopathic and ESI doctors have also lent their hands in the strike. A non-cooperation strike has been going on among the doctors since February and the doctors say that they would go on an indefinite strike from June if their demands have not been met by then.
Reason and demands of the doctors strike
The doctors have started this strike insisting that the inconsistencies in the pay wages should be rectified and that they should be given better benefits and accommodation facilities. Since the private sector doctors are getting more salary than public sector doctors, the strike demands that this difference should be removed. But the financial state of the government is not ready to allow this to happen. The government says that since the job market's of today's world is very competitive, the doctors can shift to private hospitals if they feel that they are qualified and competitive enough for the change. Instead of going on strikes, they should just quit from the government hospitals and try to get jobs in the private hospitals. Since this will cause a shortage of doctors in the government hospitals, the serious issue will lead to an automatic increase in the salaries of the public sector doctors. Now it is up to the doctors whether they want to take up this challenge put front by the government.
Impact of the doctors strike on the patients
Needless to say, the strike has severely affected the functioning of the hospitals in various districts of Kerala. Though the emergency situations in the hospitals were taken care of, many other patients faced hardships due to the strike. One patient says that he has been waiting for almost four hours at the hospital and was told by the hospital authorities that there is absolutely no use of waiting for the doctors as they will not be attending the out-patients ward. These are patients who come to government hospitals mainly because they cannot afford to get admitted to private hospitals. The Directorate of Health Service has said that alternative measures have been undertaken in all the hospitals so that the patients are not further affected.
The Minister of Health in Kerala, PK Sreemathy says that 'There is no need to go on an indefinite strike, by virtually declaring a war on the patients'. This is very true. A doctor's strike affects the patients mostly and that too in a very hard way especially because the patients who go to government hospitals are usually poor people. If these people are asked to move out from the government hospitals and get their treatment from some other hospital, it is literally impossible because they cannot afford the treatments in private hospitals. It would be unfortunate for the citizens of Kerala if the strike is not called off as soon as possible and the government hospitals start functioning normally.
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| Author: Makhzoodha 05 May 2011 | Member Level: Bronze Points : 1 |
Hi Lakshmi,
That article was really informative.
Despite the fact that the aim of this Godly profession should not be money making, most of the present doctors keep an eye for money. It is true that every profession seeks a proper wage, good standard and most important, the ethics. The ultimate goal of any doctor should be to help the patients who are the needy- who suffers from pain or troubles and come to them for a relief.It may be a word from the Doctor instead of medicines which can soothe his pain.If a doctor cant understand this and turn his face against them, then what is the so called 'medical ethics' stand for? How can he join a strike and not treat the patient who suffers? Doctors and nurses are seen as the angels of mercy and how can they opt for these kinds of mercyless strikes that affects the common man?
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| Author: Lakshmi Ramdas 06 May 2011 | Member Level: Gold Points : 1 |
Hi Makhzooda,
What you said is perfectly true! Though the doctor's profession is supposed to be selfless, it is not the case in the present world. Infact the medical field has just become a business now and no one sincerely cares whether a patient dies or not. That is why we say that we are living in kalyug right?
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| Author: shyan 08 May 2011 | Member Level: Silver Points : 1 |
The government should be more responsible and should handle things keeping the fact in mind that it is the common man who is suffering from these actions .
Why would the doctors go for such strikes simply . It surely shows the government's lack of handling skill.
Talking about the ethics , though this is a godly profession , those things do not matter these days much . To be precise , even the profession of a person who sells bottled water on the streets is godly , owing to the fact that he quenches the thirst of many . But he too will stop his profession if he can't find expected returns from it .
So the government should see to it seriously . The inactive game played by the government now is surely because it will not give them any returns on the election front .
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