Amidst the series of protests from the government doctors in the state of Tamil Nadu that had hit seventh day of continuous uncertainty among the patients in government hospitals, the state government had issued a final warning for the doctors by stating that they would be replaced if they fail to report to the duty. State health minister Vijayabaskar had cited that the health department will take the count of missing doctors following which the vacancies will be filled through inter hospital transfers and through fresh recruitment. 

On October 25th, about 16,000 government doctors of various unions under the Federation of Government Doctors Association (FOGDA) had camped their protests with four demands which they claim that the government had failed to meet up and their protests had left the patients with limited access to the basic and intensive treatments as the state's government hospitals house more Dengue affected patients and the protests come at the high time when the Dengue epidemic is on rampant rise particularly in the districts of Chennai, Vellore, Tiruvallur, Coimbatore and Kancheepuram. The protest at one of the important medical facilities in Chennai, Rajiv Gandhi general hospital has been led by five doctors of Chennai, Tiruvallur and Tiruvannamalai districts where the doctors had camped their hunger strike in the hospital premises from Friday. 

The state government has seemingly dismissed to nod for the demands placed by the doctors by citing that FOGDA is not certified and recognized by the government while some of the doctors belong to the recognized unions had called off their protests on Tuesday night after attaining consensus with the state government through negotiations. While speaking about the final offer to return to the duty, Health minister Vijayabaskar said that most of the people in the state require access for basic medications and treatments in government hospitals and stated that the government is available for the talks with the doctors and indicated that the department will take final counts of the doctors who had reported back to the duty tomorrow after which the report will be disclosed to Directorate of Public Health, Directorate Of Medical And Rural Health Services and Directorate of Medical Education for further decisions. If the protesting doctors fail to report to the duty, the government will issue orders of declaring their positions as vacant. 

Yesterday, the health department had issued break of service orders on the protesting physicians under the grounds of causing uncertainty for the patients. By issuing such orders on the doctors, the reports say that they will be left with no prospects on availing promotion, which is one of the demands behind their protests.

The reports had stated that their strike has been camped with the motive to flag their demands to unleash pressure to the government on implementing the Dynamic Assured Career Progression which proposes the equal and uniformity pay and promotions for the doctors where the scheme guarantees Band 4 salary for the doctors who had completed 13 years of service and commensurate promotions. 

Also read : https://thenewstuff.in/will-counter-government-lit-protests