Doctors’ body appeals to Chief Minister to implement long-pending pay and benefits

The Legal Coordination Committee for Government Doctors (LCC) has appealed to the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu to implement Government Order (G.O.) 354 ahead of the sixth memorial day of late Lakshmi Narasimhan, a government doctor who led the doctors’ movement.

S. Perumal Pillai, president, LCC, pointed out, government doctors dedicate their professional lives to public service, and their demands must be viewed as efforts to improve healthcare delivery. The LCC emphasised that doctors are not seeking fresh pay revisions but only the implementation of G.O. 354, an existing government order that has remained pending.

Stating that nearly 19,000 government doctors in Tamil Nadu continue to await implementation of the order, the committee urged the Chief Minister to intervene and direct the Health Department to act on the issue.

The committee further said doctors’ salaries should be viewed as an investment in public healthcare and appealed to the government to address the issue in the larger interest of strengthening the State’s healthcare system.