Nearly 1,200 specialist doctors across Punjab called off their 18-day-long agitation after getting an assurance of consideration of their demands by State Health Minister Surjit Kumar Jyani on Wednesday. Jayani, after meeting the doctors, said that the Punjab Government has considered most of the demands and those with monetary aspects like giving them higher education allowance, academic allowance etc would be forwarded to the Finance department through the Chief Minister’s Office.
He assured them that the notification issued earlier by the Government recognising them as “Specialists” and evolving a separate cadre of the specialist doctors would be implemented at the earliest. After a meeting with Jayani and Chief Parliamentary Secretary Navjot Kaur Sidhu, the agitating doctors expressed confidence in the decision of the State Government. Announcing the decision to call off their agitation, Specialist Doctors Association president Dr Kashmira Singh said that they were mindful of the woes of the patients and were attending to the emergency services.
Regarding the time bound scales, Jayani said that only a few cases are left for clearing, where departmental action have already been initiated and they would be cleared within a month. He said that the government has not accepted the demand of giving allowance to doctors who are doing post-graduate courses, however, it would consider changing the name of “Non Practicing” allowance to “Special Medical Pay” and the decision would be taken by the Chief Minister. The strike by doctors had begun on May 2, and only emergency patients were being treated and rare lab tests and ultrasound were done during the period.