Chandigarh, Dec 12: The strike by government doctors in Haryana was called off on Thursday night after the state government and representatives of the Haryana Civil Medical Services Association (HCMS/HCMSA) reached a breakthrough on contentious service-related demands, paving the way for the restoration of routine health services across districts from Friday.
After multiple rounds of discussions, Health Minister Arti Singh Rao and the doctors’ delegation agreed that government medical officers would opt for the Ayushman Bharat–linked incentive scheme in place of the modified Assured Career Progression (ACP) structure, which had been at the centre of the dispute. A committee — including a representative of the doctors’ body — will draft the contours of the incentive plan within a month after studying models implemented in other states and guidelines issued by the National Health Authority (NHA).
The government also agreed to keep in abeyance its proposal for direct recruitment of Specialist and Senior Medical Officers (SMOs), a move the association had strongly opposed on the grounds that it would undermine seniority and restrict promotion avenues. Any amendments to service rules will now be considered only after examining practices followed elsewhere.
Addressing concerns that fresh medical officers were being posted predominantly in urban facilities, potentially delaying their eligibility for the first ACP, the government assured that benefits would not be denied to any doctor who had not been assigned a rural posting by the administration.
On the treatment of the strike period, officials said the days of absence would be adjusted as leave of the kind due. In return, the association conveyed that health services would not face such disruptions again.
Over 3,000 government doctors had joined the agitation. The protest intensified after a two-hour pen-down strike on November 27, followed by mass casual leave on December 8 and 9, and an indefinite strike from December 10 — despite the state invoking the Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA), which bars strikes for six months.
Doctors have also reiterated their long-standing demand for the creation of a separate specialist cadre and stressed that promotions should remain the primary mode of career progression, not lateral appointments.
With the agreement sealed, normal OPD and emergency services are expected to resume across the state on Friday.
