Karnataka doctors threaten mass resignation

Medical officers in Karnataka have threatened to resign en masse on October 27 if the government did not concede to their long-standing demands, including hike in salaries.
State Medical Officers Association president T A Veerabhadraiah said in a statement here that the government had turned a blind eye to the 14 demands submitted by the Association six years ago.
He said the salaries of medical officers in the Health department should be increased on par with that of doctors working in Medical Education department and the pay should be disbursed on time.
The government had not paid salaries to medical officers in government hospitals for the last four months, he alleged. Even Ayurvedic doctors posted to monitor the health of school children were not paid salaries for the last six months, he said.

The Association also wanted the government to retain government hospitals under the Health and Family Welfare department, release salaries of doctors serving under the zilla panchayats directly through the department or district health officers without authorising the salary disbursement to zilla panchayats.
The Association's demands also include filling of vacancies of casualty medical officer posts, adequate supply of quality drugs to all hospitals and setting up of dental laboratories in all districts.
Veerabhadraiah asked the government to follow the Tamil Nadu model of recruitment to solve the issue of staff shortage. Tamil Nadu had a timely recruitment process and also offered post graduate seats to doctors if they served in government hospitals for two years, he said.

"We will be submitting our mass resignations on October 27, requesting the government to either fulfill our demands or accept our resignations within 30 days," he said, adding that around 3,500 medical officers would be submitting their resignations.