5,000 Kerala doctors on daylong strike

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More than 5,000 doctors in Kerala on Tuesday went on a daylong strike demanding that anomalies in pay revision be rectified.

While 4,000 doctors belong to the Kerala State Health Service, which looks after the daily functioning of all hospitals in the state's 14 districts, there are another 1,000 with the Employees State Insurance sector.

The call for the strike has been given by the Kerala government medical officers association. However, emergency services functioned without fail. The doctors have demanded that their service conditions, including pension, be reviewed as was promised by the state government earlier.

"We have been waiting here to see a doctor for four hours and we are told that the wait is going to be futile because the doctors will not attend the out-patient clinic. We don't have the resources to go to a private hospital," said a patient waiting at the general hospital here. The doctors have threatened to begin an indefinite strike if their demands are not met.