Doctors strike in Punjab: OPDs of all government hospitals and health centers in Punjab will remain completely closed from tomorrow, September 12. The Punjab Civil Medical Services Association has taken this decision after the retirement of Health Minister Balbir Singh. The association had earlier started keeping the OPDs closed for three hours from September 9.
Due to the strike, patients are facing a lot of trouble. Association President Dr. Akhil Sarin said that all OPDs will remain closed for the whole day and patients will not be seen. Only emergency services will remain operational.
PCMSA state president Dr Akhil Sarin said the health minister had agreed in principle to the security demands and assured career progression, but no written assurances were given. Sarin said the OPD service will be completely shut from Thursday.
For the last three days, doctors have kept the OPD closed from 8 am to 11 am every day as a protest. The doctor association had earlier said that if the demands are not resolved in the meeting on Wednesday, the strike will enter the second phase.
After the assurance from the government, the doctors have divided the strike into 3 phases. The first phase went on from 9 to 11 September. Meanwhile, OPD services remained closed from 8 am to 11 am. Now the second phase will be from 12 to 15 September. In which OPD services will remain completely closed. The third phase will be after 16 September. In this, doctors will clearly refuse to do medical legal along with OPD.