THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Doctors in the state are a divided lot with those in the directorate of health services (DHS) welcoming the government’s decision to increase the retirement age of doctors and the faculty at medical colleges opposing it.While doctors under the DHS opined that the government has in a way rectified the anomaly in the disparity of retirement age, medical teachers noted that the hike was illogical as it will never benefit them and only adversely affect the employment of young doctors.
As such, doctors under the DHS have come out against the junior doctors who launched an indefinite strike, contrary to the teachers who openly came out in support of the juniors.
Kerala Government Medical College Teachers Association president Dr Kavitha Ravi said that the two services cannot be compared.“Unification of pension age could be agreed. But the present hike for the DHS doctors should have been done in a phased manner,” she said.“We have already been given a hike in 2009 from 55 to 60 years. From that day, we have been giving representation not to increase the pension age. This was because the stagnation and subsequent problems caused by the hike at that time has not yet been resolved,” she said.
Kerala Government Postgraduate Medical Teachers Association president Dr Ajith Prasad J S argued that doctors under the DHS can never claim parity as working conditions differed. “We look after patients as well as teach, whereas the doctors in DHS only have to look at the treatment side. The government had in 2009 hiked the pension age of teachers after taking away the benefit of private practice. But the doctors in DHS are now getting the benefit without having to sacrifice their private practice. So, where is the parity that they say?” he asked.
On the claim that increasing pension age would help in getting more service from experienced doctors, Prasad said that there was no dearth of experienced faculty at the medical colleges. “The only thing is that promotion of experienced doctors will be affected,” he said.Meanwhile, Kerala Government Medical Officers Association president Dr V Madhu and Kerala Government Specialist Doctors Association president Dr Sunjith Ravi said that the demand for unifying the retirement age was a long-pending one.
They said junior doctors have come up with an agitation only when the hike in retirement age was affecting DHS doctors.But these junior doctors were silent when the pension age was hiked for medical college teachers in 2009, they added.
Junior docs begin indefinite strike
T’Puram:The junior doctors in government medical colleges across the state on Friday launched an indefinite strike against the hike of pension age of doctors in the health services as well as in medical colleges. Though emergency services were exempted from the strike, it had affected the functioning of the wards and also OP in some of the medical colleges. As part of the agitation, protest marches were held in all the medical colleges. In Thiruvanan-thapuram, the doctors took out a march to the secretariat. As part of their solidarity to the agitation, the MBBS students boycotted classes.