MADURAI: Tamil Nadu Government Doctors Association members of Government Rajaji Hospital accepted to perform elective surgeries following an assurance from Health Minister Ma Subramanian on Thursday.
They have been staging the protest since October 3 demanding the state government to suspend the CHO and reduce the workload of obstetrics gynaecologists. TNGDA members had also announced that they will not perform family planning surgeries from Thursday.
GRH doctors staged a protest in front of the IMA hall on Wednesday raising the same demand, following which a state-level committee was formed by Director of National Health Mission Shilpa Prabhakar Satish to improve the audit of maternal deaths.
District collector MS Sangeetha had sent a letter to health secretary Gagandeep Singh Bedi alleging that GRH medical officers fabricated the case sheets of two maternal deaths, based on her audit. Following this, a committee inquired with medical officers and staff working in Urban Primary Health Centres (UPHCs) in connection with the maternal death on October 2 and submitted the report. Gagandeep Singh Bedi and director of medical education Dr Shanthi Malar met the health minister and spoke to the office bearers of TNGDA on Thursday.
TNGDA president Dr K Senthil told TNIE that minister Ma Subramanian accepted the demand. “Nearly 12 OGs across the state are members of the state-level committee. Of this, four OGs are from GRH. They will give recommendations in order to reduce the work load. The minister has also agreed to fill up 350 OG vacancies across the state and give notification within this week,” he said.
Directorate of Medical Education and Research (DME) Dr R Shanthimalar sent a letter to deans of government medical colleges across the state and heads of institutions under the administrative control of the directorate on October 9. In her letter, she said all doctors should mark their attendance as per the NMC regulations. “All doctors should perform their duty as assigned to them. All in-patient treatments and procedures should not be postponed without any justification. Absence of doctors on duty will be construed as dereliction of duty and will will be viewed seriously,” the letter read.