‘Dear’ doctors

The Editor: Is the action of the doctors part of the civil disobedience campaign?

We can all remember the pain this society endured a few months ago when the doctors bellyached over matters of recognition for their new union which they knew had to go before the recognition board. People died as a result of their callous action.

The foolishness only stopped when an injunction was filed and the doctors were forced back to work or face jail. Part of the settlement was to have the injunction removed; this was a mistake; they are back on the sickout scene again and with another pureile cause. Ironically the PSA is still restricted by an injunction filed against it for a doctor strike in 2002. This has not being repealed and the doctors have left to form their own union while leaving the PSA in a legal straight jacket.

None of them wants to go to Tobago to work yet they want to get comparable salaries (after getting money recently and are still able to do private practice on the people’s time) as the Tobago doctors who are disadvantaged by higher cost of living and other conditions there. It is time the state get itself some backbone and deal with these doctors once and for all, before the pressure cooker which our society has beome erupts in the waiting rooms of our hospitals and blood is spilled in anger.

Mc Donald James
Couva