A day after Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said that all was well in Kerala despite the daily hike in the number of people afflicted with Covid-19 cases and the State was a shining example to the rest of the country, discontentment from the medical fraternity came out in the open.
Kerala Government Medical Officers Association (KGMOA), the biggest apolitical organization of doctors working in the Government service fired the first salvo on Sunday about the impending agitations.
“We are overworked, exhausted, tired and being over-exploited by the authorities. On an average, more than a hundred medical staff get afflicted with Covid-19 every day as doctors, nurses and other supporting staff are forced to work without break,” said Dr G S Vijayakrishnan and Dr T N Suresh, president and general secretary respectively of the KGMOA on Sunday.
The doctors said that despite their pleas to the Government, especially the Chief Minister, during the last 18 months highlighting the shortcomings faced by the public health sector in the State, the Government has not done anything to resolve
the issues. Meanwhile the situation has gone from bad to worse with more and more doctors coming under attack from the patients as well as their relations for no fault of the doctors or the hospital staff.
“The Government is duty bound to adopt policy decisions which would strengthen the health infrastructure, retain and encourage the services of doctors with professional experience in public health,” said the statement.
They pointed out that instead of strengthening the public health sector, what the Government has done during the last 18 months was to weaken the sector beyond recognition. “Public health sector in Kerala is crumbling and fretting day by day.
The Government, instead of taking steps to strengthen the sector is allowing it to get disintegrated day by day. What has happened is that most of the doctors who are frontline warriors in the fight against Covid-19 have got afflicted with the pandemic of course through contacts,” said the statement.
The doctors as well as their family members are falling victims to Covid-19, they said. “While other States in India are in the forefront to help and inspire the doctors by hiking salaries, perks and risk allowances, the Kerala Government has cut down the remuneration and done away with risk allowances and the insurance safety net . Our requests to recruit 1,000 doctors, at least on temporary scale, have fallen on deaf ears,” rue the doctors association.
An office bearer of KGMOA said that Health Minister Veena George denying in the floor of the Legislative Assembly about physical assaults on doctors was proof of how indifferent the Government is towards their grievances.
The statement further said that the Government instead of encouraging the good works done by the doctors fraternity have drastically deducted their entry level pay and cut short whatever little allowances they were getting.
“In addition to this, the Government cancelled the personal pay system and risk allowances. The doctors unlike others who chose to stay in the safety of their houses, were working in Covid-19 wards risking their own lives and this is what they got,” said the statement.
As part of their efforts to highlight the difficulties faced by them, the entire doctor community in the State would observe August 31 as a day of protest. “We will hold public meetings in all government hospitals across the State on August 31 without causing any inconvenience to the patients. This is a prelude to major protests on the anvil ,” said Dr Suresh.