Outpatient department services across government-run hospitals in Odisha were disrupted on Monday morning after doctors boycotted work for two hours, escalating a protest over long-pending demands, including the filling of more than 50 per cent vacant posts.
Members of the Odisha Medical Service Association (OMSA) stayed away from OPD duties between 9 am and 11 am, seeking implementation of their 10-point charter of demands.
OMSA president Kishore Mishra said the agitation has been ongoing since November 20.
“In the first phase, the doctors joined work wearing black badges, and from December 26, boycotted OPD services for one hour. They further extended the OPD boycott to two hours from today,” he said.
Emergency services, inpatient care and surgeries were not affected by the protest, Mishra said.
“Now on, OPDs will remain closed from 9 am to 11 am daily, from primary health centres to district headquarters hospitals,” he added.
Health Minister Mukesh Mahaling appealed to the doctors to shun agitation as the government was "sympathetically considering" their demands.
He said the state government has constituted an inter-departmental committee to examine their demands.
Mishra, however, said the previous BJD government had also set up a ministerial committee, but nothing happened.
"We have no trust in these committees. We urge the CM to intervene and resolve the problem," he said.
Mishra said there are a little over 6,000 government doctors in the state, while the sanctioned strength is 15,776.
"This means that over 50 per cent of posts are vacant, which is creating additional pressure on the existing doctors," he said.
Asked about people's sufferings, Mishra said no one will be denied healthcare services as doctors will work after the two-hour boycott.
Among the other demands by the doctors are pay equal to that of central government employees, proportional restructuring of cadres across all grades, additional financial incentives for super-specialists, specialists, and diploma medical administrators, postmortem allowance and equivalent performance-based incentives.