Govt docs not to share reports, boycott meetings against pay disparity

The Karnataka Government Medical Officers’ Association (KGMOA) has issued directions to its 4,620 members to stop sharing any report with the government, both Covid and non-Covid, with effect from Tuesday.

“Most of the labs are either private or come under the medical education department. The government is free to get Covid test reports from the labs directly. When we struck work in Mysuru a few days ago, Mysuru showed zero cases. That was just for one district. Now, it will show a blank for all districts,” said Dr Srinivas G A, Bengaluru District Health Officer (DHO).

The patients will be informed of their Covid status by private labs or government labs that come under the medical education department, he added.

The medical officers did not share any reports with the government after Nanjangud Taluk Health Officer Dr S R Nagendra ended his life.

The DHO said the information blockade applies to all government programmes such immunisation, tuberculosis and leprosy programmes.

The executive committee of KGMOA which met on Saturday decided to submit a memorandum to deputy commissioners of various districts on September 14.

The memorandum says, “We would not be submitting any online or offline reports from September 15, participating in any meeting held by DC/CEO, or health department meetings whether offline or online, including DHO meetings. We would wait for one week.”

The memorandum adds that in case of no response from the government, all services except emergency services will be closed from September 21.

Currently, the medical education department doctors are being paid according to the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) scale. While an MBBS doctor on AICTE scale gets more than a lakh per month, a health department doctor gets less than Rs 70,000 KGMOA says.

“While their doctors are working at the district level, our specialists are working at the taluk/gram panchayat level and in community health centres. They are as qualified or even have more credentials than the doctors of the medical education department,” Dr Srinivas said.