The Government Medical Officers’ Association (GMOA) has decided to intensify its ongoing continuous trade union action from February 2 (Monday), following a lack of response from relevant authorizes regarding several of their key demands.

The GMOA initially launched a continuous trade union action across the entire government hospital system on January 26, based on a series of issues presented to the government.

At a meeting held on January 26, the Central Committee of the GMOA decided to grant the Minister of Health a 48-hour ultimatum to decide and announce a positive solution to the issues raised.

However, the association said that the Ministry of Health has since failed to present satisfactory responses to the relevant issues. In view of this situation, the GMOA has decided to further intensify its trade union action from February 2 and continue the strike.

Accordingly, an emergency meeting of the Executive Committee of the GMOA was held this morning (January 31), during which the decision to proceed with the intensified measures was confirmed.

The GMOA announced that the following actions will come into effect from 8.00 a.m. on February 2:

•  Suspension of issuing prescriptions and recommendations for patients to obtain medicines and medical equipment from external sources that are unavailable within the hospital.
•  Suspension of issuing recommendations for patients to undergo laboratory tests externally when they are unavailable within the hospital.
•  Withdrawal from voluntary participation in health camps and clinics organized by political groups.
•  Suspension of assigning doctors to new hospital wards and units opened within the hospital system without the officially approved number of medical officers.
•  Withdrawal from examining patients in the absence of adequate facilities and support staff required to ensure the safety and privacy of patients.
•  Limiting of specialist services solely to the hospital to which they are officially attached, and withdrawing from covering duties for services in other hospitals that lack specialist doctors.