Chandigarh: All govt outpatient departments (OPDs) and outpatient opioid-assisted treatment (OOAT) clinics across Punjab will remain closed on Thursday as doctors and de-addiction staff join the statewide strike call of the Punjab Ministerial Staff Union and Sanjha Mulazam Manch Punjab.The PCMS Association (PCMSA) announced a one-day closure of OPDs in support of the strike, seeking implementation of the Old Pension Scheme, payment of pending DA instalments and arrears, correction of anomalies arising from the Seventh Pay Commission and an end to contractual, ad-hoc and outsourced recruitment.Emergency services, MCH services, emergency surgeries, indoor admissions, medico-legal and post-mortem work and judicial medical examinations will continue, PCMSA said.OOAT clinics will also remain shut as employees of govt de-addiction and rehabilitation centres observe mass leave. Government Drug De-Addiction and Rehabilitation Employees Union state president Parminder Singh said counsellors, nurses, data entry operators and ward attendants were seeking regularisation, equal pay for equal work and restoration of the withheld 12% financial allowance.The union said it had informed the administration and concerned departments in advance so alternative arrangements could be made for patients. It warned of intensifying the agitation if the demands were not addressed.PCMSA president Dr Akhil Sarin said the association was hopeful that the govt would address the demands of employee unions favourably.
