GUWAHATI: Largescale protests by the Assam Medical Service Association (AMSA) on Monday resulted in complete disruption of healthcare services in the outpatient departments (OPD) of hospitals in the state.

Hundreds of OPDs were non-functional between 8 am and 1.30 pm, marking the beginning of the three-day OPD boycott program by AMSA on account of non-fulfilment of their demands, which include time scale promotion for doctors and regularization of salaries of senior PG doctors.

AMSA stated that their demands have not been heard even after several meetings with the state health department and they have decided to escalate their protest now. The boycott program is supported by the Indian Medical Association (IMA).

AMSA general secretary, Dr Kanak Ch Talukdar, said that they cannot tolerate the discrimination against senior doctors. Talukdar stated that they have been raising the issue of junior doctors getting more salaries than PG doctors/specialists since 2013, but the state government has been unable to resolve the issue. Therefore, they are forced to take extreme steps.

When thousands of patients were denied treatment causing chaos in the hospitals, the principal secretary of the state health department, Anurag Goel, called up AMSA and asked them to withdraw the strike. 

Talukdar said that the principal secretary had assured that the government will find a solution to their demands, adding that no decision had been taken till the filing of this report about withdrawing the OPD boycott program.

AMSA stated that even after serving in the posts of joint directors and sub-divisional medical officers for over a decade, many senior doctors have not been promoted.

Later during the day, state health minister Keshab Mahanta invited AMSA for talks but the deadlock continued.

Source: The Times of India