On a single day, the Health department issued orders to depute 58 medical officers – the majority of them being post graduate medical students – from some of the major government medical colleges to government medical colleges in Nagapattinam, Tiruvallur, The Nilgiris and Tiruvarur.
Official sources and a number of senior doctors confirmed that this deputation/postings was to address specific manpower shortages in these government medical colleges, which included three of the 11 new institutions Nagapattinam, Tiruvallur and The Nilgiris.
In one of the two orders, which were issued on November 5, the Directorate of Medical Education (DME) and Research citing “exigency” asked deans of five medical colleges – Thanjavur Medical College, KAPV Medical College, Tiruchi, Coimbatore Medical College, Government Mohan Kumaramangalam Medical College, Salem and Madras Medical College – to relieve 51 PGs to undergo the District Residency Programme (DRP) at the specified institutions. Of the 51, 18 were from the department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, 15 from Paediatrics and 18 from Anaesthesia. They were told to join the medical colleges at Tiruvarur, Nagapattinam, The Nilgiris and Tiruvallur on November 11. However, official sources said that the next batch for the three-month DRP postings mandated for PGs was scheduled to begin only in January 2025.
In the other deputation order, seven medical officers in the cadre of junior residents, senior residents and assistant professors in general medicine, obstetrics and gynaecology, and forensic medicine working in the government medical colleges in Tiruvarur and Thanjavur were deputed to work at Nagapattinam medical college for three months on “administrative grounds”.
A government doctor, on condition of anonymity, said that most of the doctors in Nagapattinam medical college are those posted during their bond period and a number of them have since been relieved from service. “There were a lot of vacancies even prior to this. The department is expecting 800 regular service PGs, and 1,200 Non-Service PGs for bond posting in February. So, they are trying to manage the situation with DRP postings and diversions,” he said. Another doctor added that manpower from Tiruvarur medical college was diverted to Nagapattinam when Tiruvarur itself has severe shortage.
A senior doctor noted that such temporary arrangements would not help. “No new posts were created for several years. The actual vacancy position is not shown in many institutions. A restructuring exercise taken up in 2019 led to a decrease in the number of posts,” he said.
Published – November 08, 2024 08:23 pm IST