BENGALURU: With contractual doctors in the Health and Family Welfare Department threatening to go on strike from July 8 over the delay in fulfilling their demands, the State Government on Thursday issued an order increasing their salaries from Rs 45,000 to to Rs 60,000 per month. However, with their main demand of regularisation of service not being met, they have threatened to resign.
Reacting to the government order, the doctors, in a release, said, “We are called ‘frontline warriors’, but if we die, there will be no one left to take care of our families. Being contractual employees in the government, our families will get no benefits. Many health personnel and doctors have succumbed to Covid-19. With us being on the frontline, our families are scared and worried about what might happen to us.”The order added, temporary doctors and dentists will be appointed at rural PHCs on contract basis till permanent doctors are appointed. They will be paid Rs 45,000 per month.
Doctors’ stir to impact 1 crore people
If the doctors don’t show up for work after July 8, it will affect around 80 lakh to one crore people in rural areas.Absorption of doctors on contract basis in the Karnataka Directorate of Health and Family Welfare Services Special Rules was notified in 2002, as per which, after three years of service in rural areas, they would be regularised by the Health Department. Post 2016, none of the batches of contract doctors appointed were regularised. Their demands include job security and to be treated on par with permanent doctors in the department who earn Rs 85,000.
While these doctors are appointed in primary health centres, they are also deputed in district hospitals when there is shortage, or during emergencies. For Covid-19, they perform duties in PHCs collecting throat swabs, working with Covid-positive patients in isolation wards of designated Covid-19 hospitals, in quarantine centres to oversee suspected cases, etc.