The Kerala Government Medical College Teachers’ Association (KGMCTA) will intensify its ongoing protest by boycotting outpatient (OP) services across all government medical colleges in the state from Monday, citing long-pending issues, including pay revision delays and acute staff shortage.

The association stated that its key demands include the payment of pending salary and dearness allowance arrears due to a four-year delay in implementing the decennial pay revision, rectifying pay anomalies in the Assistant Professor entry-level scale, and recruiting more doctors to match the growing patient load.

Despite conducting protests earlier — such as boycotting academic sessions without disrupting public services — the government’s continued inaction has forced doctors to adopt a more stringent form of protest, KGMCTA said. The association held the government solely responsible for the situation.

On OP strike days, only junior and postgraduate doctors will remain on duty. The association urged the public to visit hospitals only for emergency needs on Monday, and to understand that the protest is also a stand against policies that make advanced medical care inaccessible to the poor.

If the government still fails to act, relay OP boycotts will follow on October 28, November 5, November 13, November 21, and November 29, with classes also suspended on these days. The association said it will simultaneously launch statutory and non-cooperation protests.

KGMCTA also raised strong objections to the temporary redeployment of doctors to newly established medical colleges, calling it an unscientific practice that misleads both patients and the National Medical Commission (NMC). It urged the government to create new posts instead of transferring existing staff to colleges lacking proper infrastructure.

Even in long-established medical college hospitals, there is a severe shortage of doctors, making it challenging to meet the demands of modern medical practices and rising patient numbers, the association noted. Transferring doctors from these institutions to new, ill-equipped colleges, it said, has pushed government medical college hospitals — the primary care centres for the poor — into a deep crisis.