Odisha Doctors Launch Indefinite Cease-Work

Overview

• The Odisha Medical Services Association called the indefinite cease-work that began on Wednesday and led to the suspension of routine outpatient (OPD) services across many state-run hospitals while emergency, ICU, labour room and inpatient care continued.
• OMSA said roughly 8,000 government doctors joined the action at district and rural facilities, producing long queues and denied routine care in places such as Balasore, Bhadrak, Kendrapara and Jajpur.
• Medical college doctors have kept treating patients while wearing black badges to signal protest and many contractual doctors continued working, creating uneven service availability across the state.
• The protesters’ core demands include implementation of Dynamic Assured Career Progression (DACP) — a time-linked promotion and pay pathway — cadre restructuring, transparency in transfers, more hires and pay parity with central government medical officers.
• The strike was sharpened by a recent assault on a doctor at Malkangiri District Headquarters Hospital and OMSA says it will sustain or escalate the action until the state government delivers a time-bound response while the government says grievances are under review with no resolution yet reported.