Salaries withheld for months
Dimapur, October 26 (MExN): Several doctors (COVID Appointees) appointed during the critical COVID-19 pandemic have ceased work indefinitely from October 25 protesting non-payment of salaries.
The doctors said they were compelled to take the drastic 'No Pay, No Work' measure as “our means to sustain ourselves is at an end,” adding that they refrained from taking such step before keeping public interest in mind.
“However, we are in our 4th month without salary and if we do not cease work now, we will be looking forward to a dry Christmas season like the previous 2 years.”
On humanitarian grounds, doctors working in intensive care unit (ICU), mainly at the Naga Hospital Kohima Authority will perform duty till this week, the doctors informed.
However, if the pending salaries are not cleared at the earliest, even the ICU doctors will stop rendering services beyond this week, they added.
“We apologise for such measure, but even we have families and desperate times call for desperate measures,” the doctors noted.
As reported by The Morung Express on October 20, to augment of the pre-existing medical workforce, 168 doctors were appointed on phased manner as Junior Specialists and Medical Officers.
The period of engagement was for one year or “till regular appointment is made though the NPSC, whichever is earlier,” according to the appointment order.
The doctors, who were subsequently appointed, were then placed in various government health establishments across the State, from November 2020-July 2021. This set of doctors also came to be known as ‘COVID Appointees.'
It was learnt that more than a fourth of the total 168 doctors have resigned either due to erratic salary or ending of the terms and conditions of their engagement.
At present, around 120 remain in service with a majority of them assigned to health centres in the interiors or “outposts,” a source then told this newspaper.
