Kathmandu, January 7

Government doctors today halted all health services, except emergency service, across the country for an hour.

Doctors staged a sit-in from 10:00am to 11:00am at their respective hospitals seeking amendment in the employee adjustment ordinance.

Government Doctors’ Association of Nepal had yesterday announced they would halt health services across the country for an hour after the Ministry of Health and Population did not address their demands.

President of GODAN Dipendra Pandey informed that the protest would continue until their demands were met. “We are also planning to launch other protest programmes if the government does not heed our demands.”

Doctors have demanded that the adjustment of doctors in the local and provincial levels be done on the basis of seniority.

GODAN has also demanded that the decision to appoint secretary at the Ministry of Health and Population, who is not from the medical sector, be scrapped pronto. It has demanded administrative training for joint secretaries (11th level) so that they can easily be adjusted in various ministries.