No paucity of funds for the health department despite roadblocks by the central government, says Dr Balbir Singh
CHANDIGARH: Following the assurance from Punjab Health and Family Welfare Minister Dr Balbir Singh, the state government doctors have called off their strike with immediate effect on Saturday.
Dr Balbir Singh, along with Principal Secretary Finance Ajoy Kumar Sinha and Secretary Health Kumar Rahul, on Saturday chaired an emergency meeting with a delegation of PCMS Association led by the state president Dr Akhil Sarin and appealed the doctors to call off the strike as patients are facing hardships due to the ongoing strike by the doctors, besides assuring that there is no paucity of funds for the department despite the roadblocks by the central government. Therefore, there will not be any hindrance in implementing the approved demands of the PCMSA.
Patient welfare is the foremost objective of the Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann led Punjab government and no patient should suffer due to lack of treatment, he added.
The Health Minister informed that although the cabinet sub-committee has already agreed to the demands of the doctors on strike this Wednesday but still he reassures that their demands such as restoration of Dynamic Assured Career Progression (DACP) will be implemented soon.
Delibrating on other demands of the PCMSA, Dr Balbir Singh said that he himself is of the opinion that there is stagnation in the career of a doctor, their first promotion is mostly at the age of fifty years and he is working to increase the posts of SMOs so that such stagnation can be minimised. The government has sanctioned to recruit 1390 doctors out of which 400 vacancies have already been advertised. Funds for the security arrangements in hospitals have already been released, CCTVs in all the government health facilities are being installed.
Dr Balbir Singh said that the government is committed to the demands of the PCMSA as most of their demands have been approved and will be implemented in a time bound manner. The modalities are being finalised and the process will be started by next week, he added.
During the meeting the state president of the PCMSA Dr Akhil Sarin expressed gratitude to the Health Minister for reassurance on their demands and announced to call off their strike from immediate effect and as a sympathetic gesture towards the patients the PCMSA decided to extend the OPD timing by two hours to compensate for the inconvenience faced by the patients due to the strike.
Secretary Finance Diprava Lakra, Director Health and Family Welfare Dr Hitinder Kaur, Director Medical Education and Research Dr Avnish Kumar and other senior officers of the state government were also present in the meeting.