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Contractual doctors across the state have threatened to go on an indefinite strike from January 15 if the government does not regularise their service and increase salary by then.
More than 1,600 contractual doctors are working with primary health centres, referral hospitals, divisional hospitals and medical colleges.
On Sunday, the medical practitioners affiliated to Bihar State Contract Doctors’ Association said besides regularisation of service according to the terms and conditions of regular doctors till December 2012, they have been demanding salary on a par with their peers in Delhi.
A contractual doctor in the national capital gets a monthly salary of Rs 53,000. In Bihar, the amount is Rs 30,000.
“There has been no increase in our salary for three years. Besides, we don’t get salary on time. Doctors in Bihar are being appointed on a contractual basis for 15 years. But in neighbouring Jharkhand, the public service commission has conducted recruitment process of doctors thrice since the state was carved out of undivided Bihar in 2000,” said Dr Amitabh, who has been serving Patna Medical College and Hospital on contractual basis for over five years.
Dr Vinay Krishan, posted at Okri primary health centre in Jehanabad since 2007, said: “Other states have regularised the service of contractual doctors. But the Bihar government has not taken any step.”
Health minister Ashwini Kumar Choubey, who is in Nagpur, told The Telegraph: “We have started the process to regularise the services of the contractual doctors who have at least three years of experience. The Bihar Public Service Commission is in charge of the recruitment process and will take interviews of such doctors soon.”
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