Tamil Nadu doctors go on strike; outpatient services at govt hospitals affected

ChennaiGovernment doctors in Tamil Nadu are boycotting their work demanding a 50 per cent reservation for them in admission to post-graduate medical courses in the state, which is partially affecting outpatient services in hospitals.[caption id=“attachment_3048226” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. Getty images[/caption] Doctors attached to various associations have been agitating since 2 May staging state-wide protests and have not taken up “elective surgeries”. However, the agitating doctors have said they were attending to emergency procedures. The associations have announced a one-day token strike on 8 May protesting cancellation of reservation for in service doctors in PG medical admissions. A protesting doctor said they have been attending to only emergency cases and providing emergency services while “elective surgeries”, which are not emergent in nature, have been postponed. However, outpatient services have been affected at various hospitals and primary health centres. The government has already held talks and assured its support to them on the matter, while urging them to withdraw their protest. The doctors, however, want the government to take legal steps to ensure reservation for them. Among other forms of protest, they have gone on a mass casual leave and announced the one day strike on 8 May. The issue came to fore after a single judge bench of Madras High Court on 17 April ruled that incentive marks to in-service candidates in PG admissions would have to be based on the Medical Council of India (MCI) regulation and not as per the state government prospectus. A division bench had on Wednesday delivered a split verdict on the appeals filed challenging the single judge order and arguments are now on before a third judge on the matter. As per the MCI regulations 50 percent of the medical seats should be allocated to all-India quota while the rest can be retained by the state. Out of this, 25 percent of seats should be for the in service candidates. The state government had submitted in the court that the award of the incentive marks to the in-service candidates was being made for the past 35 years to encourage doctors to serve people in remote, hilly and difficult areas and was not violative of the MCI norms.