HMOA concerned over rising violence against medical staff

Our Correspondent

Kangra, January 16

The Himachal Medical Officers’ Association (HMOA) has demanded that the violation of the HP Medicare Act (prevention of violence against medical and para-medical staff) should be made a non-bailable offence as incidents of violence against medical and para-medical staff are rising.

This will help check such incidents as the majority of staff are women doctors and women nursing staff who fear for their life on emergency duties and they hesitate to perform emergency duties.

HMOA members recently called on Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh and apprised him of the various pressing demands of medical officers which have been pending before the government for the past few years.

Dr Susheel Sharma, spokesman of the HMOA, said medical officers had demanded that the issue of 4,9,14 years time scale should be settled immediately and ad-hoc, contract, Rozgar Kalayan Samiti service should be counted and previous notification of one-time relaxation should be immediately withdrawn and a new notification issued without any preconditions.

Dr Susheel said the HMOA further demanded that doctors should be appointed on an ad-hoc basis instead of contract and they should be regularised after three years of service.

The HMOA demanded that the quota for post-graduate doctors should be increased to 90 per cent instead of 66 per cent for in-service candidates.

Doctors demanded that regular DPC should be held for appointing assistant professors in medical colleges and seniority should be kept in mind while appointing them.

The HMOA demanded that dental and ayurvedic doctors appointed as district programme officers under NHM should immediately be withdrawn. It further demanded that security and sanitation services should be outsourced up to community health centres and outsourced agencies were providing 24 x7 emergency services.

Dr Susheel said the HMOA further demanded that duty hours of doctors should be defined as doctors were made to perform duty for 36 to 48 hours at a stretch.

He said all these issues were raised before the Chief Minister at a meeting with him during his current winter sojourn.