Hyderabad, July 25 (UNI): BJP State senior leader Gudur Narayana Reddy on Monday demanded that the State government solve the issues of the government doctors and ensure uninterrupted services to the poor patients. In a media statement, Narayana Reddy said some 2000 government doctors have taken up protests from Monday onwards demanding immediate resolution of their issues. They are planning to go on strike if their demands were not addressed. “The strike by the government doctors would hit hard the poor patients, who could not go to private hospitals. The Health Minister should interfere and take immediate steps to uninterrupted services to lakhs of poor patients,” he said, adding that the government doctors are demanding the implementation of pay scales as recommended by the University Grants Commission. They want general transfers, emergency leave encashment, and others.
Gudur said the government did not solve these issues for the past five years even though the government doctors have been raising them time and again. The government has been harassing the doctors who have raised the issues. He said due to unprecedented heavy rains and floods, seasonal diseases have been affecting the health of the poor people all over the State for the past two weeks. Lakhs of poor people are visiting government hospitals for treatment every day.
“In these circumstances, if the government doctors go on strike, the medical services would be hit hard. The poor would be denied health care eventually leading to deaths,” Narayana Reddy said. He said the issues being raised by the doctors were not unaddressable and they were not asking for benefits that could not be met by the government. What all government doctors want is fair treatment along with other government staff and officials.
The BJP leader said the government doctors were reeling under pressure due to the situation which has arisen due to the Covid pandemic in the past two years. They have treated lakhs of Covid patients risking their lives. The government has put unprecedented pressure during these two years without providing protective equipment and essential medicines. “The doctors of teaching hospitals have done a commendable job in the past two years in extraordinary circumstances,” he added.
He said now monkeypox is spreading in the State as one case has been registered in the State on July 24. He said the number of Covid positive cases is also on the rise. Along with the virus-related diseases, seasonal diseases have been throwing a challenge to the doctors, particularly the government medicos.
