Several doctors of CSMMU went on a mass casual leave on Saturday. The doctors,who were on strike for the last two days,have been demanding the implementation of the Tikku Commission recommendations for their promotion. While the OPD was affected,emergency services ran smoothly. The patient load in the OPD was lower than usual with Saturday being a government holiday. Most of the patients who came to the OPD were either seen by junior doctors or senior resident doctors in the absence of faculty members. Against the usual 250 to 300 patients seen in the OPD of the Internal Medicine department,merely 81 patients were registered on Sunday. Most of the operations were rescheduled and a few patients had to return due to non-availability of doctors. We were on casual leave but we came to the hospital and visited the wards as we could not have left the critical patients all by themselves, said a senior doctor. The Teachers Association of CSMMU has been demanding the implementation of the Tikku Commission Recommendation,whereby promotions are made on a time-bound basis. Currently,the faculty members face a selection committee,which decides on the promotion. Though the Minister for Medical Education Lalji Verma had promised that he would incorporate the Tikku Commission Recommendations in the CSMMU Act in the last Assembly session,it was not done. We are protesting against it, said Dr Naim Ahmed,general secretary of the association. The administration,meanwhile,maintains that the mass leave did not affect the functioning of the hospital as doctors were on duty. Most of the doctors were on duty and we have not received more than 50 casual leave applications today, said CSMMU Vice-Chancellor Dr Saroj Chooramani Gopal. The present criteria for promotion of CSMMU doctors is in accordance with the system in AIIMS and SGPGI as the salary structure of the doctors here correspond to that of the other institutes, said the V-C. OTHER DEMANDS: * Removal of anomalies in the salary of faculty members following the implementation of the Sixth Pay Commission and implementation of the super-time payscale for senior doctors. * Implementation of rotatory headship instead of one person continuing on the post for an indefinite period. This,according to the association,leads to harassment of faculty members. * Permission to carry on with private practice in lieu of the non-practising allowance that is given to doctors. ADMINISTRATIONs TAKE: The matter of rotatory headship is a national issue and we will wait for AIIMS and SGPGI to implement it and then we will follow suit, said the V-C. Removal of anomalies from the salary of doctors has already been brought to the notice of the government and it will be sorted out soon. They need not go on a strike for these things, added the V-C.
