Overview
- Effective January 6, the state invoked ESMA to prohibit strike action in essential medical services for six months.
- The order spans doctors, nurses, paramedics, technicians and Class III–IV staff across government hospitals, medical colleges and grant-in-aid institutions.
- OMSA continued a two-hour OPD boycott from 9 to 11 a.m. on January 7 as a symbolic protest, while emergency care, surgeries and inpatient services proceeded.
- The government appealed to doctors to resume duties and set up an inter-departmental panel, which OMSA rejected while insisting on written guarantees.
- Doctors demand central pay parity and cadre restructuring, citing over 50% vacancies with about 6,000 doctors in post out of 15,776 sanctioned, and they plan a January 15 executive meeting to decide next steps.