Thursday, August 1, 2019

Court concerned over pay of govt docs, bats for hike
Sureshkumar.K@timesgroup.com

Chennai:01.08.2019

Batting for an immediate pay hike for government doctors in the state, on a par with Group-I services, the Madras high court has said meagre salary is the primary reason for doctors preferring private practice.

“An assistant surgeon is paid only ₹45,000 whereas other government servants in the same grade get a much higher pay. Doctors’ profession is one which cannot be equated to any other service,” a division bench of Justice N Kirubakaran and Justice V Parthiban said on Wednesday. “They work round the clock without any security in their work place, often facing attack from public,” the bench added. Doctors play an important role in society and they must be given due preference, it said.

The judges made the observations while hearing a 2017 petition moved by C Kumaran, a resident of Royapettah, against strike announced by government doctors condemning an attack against a doctor. The petitioner wanted the court to direct the government to initiate action against the doctors who participated in the strike for negligence and dereliction of duty.

On March 17, 2017, arguing the case on behalf of the petitioner, advocate S Doraisamy submitted that due to some unsavoury incident, medical college students, trainees, and doctors got agitated and staged a road roko from 6pm to 8.30pm on March16, 2017, near the Rajiv Gandhi Government Hospital. During the flash strike, patients were left unattended resulting in the death of three in Chennai alone, the petitioner alleged.

Denying the submissions, the government pleader submitted that no deaths were reported due to the strike and that doctors did not participate in the strike. Only medical students resorted to the agitation, he said.

Recording the submission, on March 17, 2017, the court observed that such attacks on government doctors by relatives of patients must be stopped immediately. The court directed the state to report the strength of doctors and budgetary allocation of government hospitals.

When the plea came up for hearing on Wednesday, the bench noted that the twoyear old direction is yet to be complied with by the government and directed the authorities to provide details of working hours of doctors and their strength in emergency wards in medical college hospitals and district hospitals along the other queries by August14.

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