Today, Nov. 3, marks the second day of the province-level one-day symbolic strikes that the Government Medical Officers’ Association (GMOA) started.
As a result, starting at 8 a.m. tomorrow, medical officials affiliated with all state hospitals in the Northern Province will not be doing their responsibilities.
The government doctors working in hospitals in the province of Uva went on a token strike to mark the start of the trade union action yesterday, November 2.
The medical officers in the provinces of North Western and Sabaragamuwa will continue the trade union action on November 06 (Monday) and 07 (Tuesday), respectively, following the call-off of the strike by the government doctors in the Northern Province at 8 a.m. tomorrow.
Token strikes are anticipated at hospitals in the provinces of the Central and Eastern regions on Wednesday, November 8.
On November 9 (Thursday), medical officers from the Southern and North Central provinces will join the trade union strike; on November 10 (Friday), medical officers from the Western province will do the same.
The GMOA guaranteed that this trade union action would not impact the operations of tri-forces hospitals, maternity, cancer, children’s, or nephrology hospitals.
The association said that the inconveniences that patients are experiencing as a result of these token strikes should be the responsibility of the authorities, who have chosen to ignore the issues it has brought up, such as the exodus of doctors, rising taxes and electricity rates, and the rapidly rising cost of living.
