Mandatory 42-hour work week, no private practice, restrictions on night duty: WB issues SOP for govt doctors
private practice
Kolkata: Issuing new guidelines for framing duty rosters of faculty in medical colleges, the West Bengal Health Department has restricted government doctors from doing private practice during duty hours. The State has also made it clear that faculties should remain present in key departments such as the central laboratory, and radiology department even after regular working hours.
According to a recent Indian Express report, in this regard, the State Health Department issued specific guidelines to the doctors on January 03, 2025, and mentioned that it would be mandatory for all the faculties to work 42 hours a week.
Other requirements specified restrictions on night duty hours and regular duty hours for the doctors including medical officers in the evening and night shift in the emergency department etc.
Apart from these, the guidelines further mentioned that one faculty member from each unit must be available on campus at night on admission days for consultation with senior residents, Indian Express has reported.
"Assistant Professors will be assigned emergency, on-call, and floor duties, similar to the responsibilities previously held by RMO-CTs. Morning and evening rounds in IPD and emergency wards are mandatory. All faculty members must attend OPDs on admission days," it added.
As per the guidelines, each faculty member must have rotational Sunday duties, and they cannot perform more than one 12-hour night shift per week.
The State had issued these guidelines earlier through the notice dated 09.03.2022, 20.07.2018, 26.02.2018 etc. Referring to these earlier guidelines, the State Health Department mentioned on 03.01.2025, "In order to render adequate and qualitative patient care services from the hospitals by utilizing the available man power optimally, the Superintendent of the Hospital have been authorized to prepare Duty Roster of Medical Officers, Specialist Medical Officers and other staffs in terms of orders of this Department bearing Memo No: HF/0/GA/1936/W-153/11, Dated 26.07.2011, No. HS-299/HF/O/GA/W/ 153/2011(Pt.1) dated 26.02.2018, No. HS-376/HF/O/GA /W/153 /2011(Pt) dated 20.07.2018 and No. HF/O/HS(MA)/654/HAD/12M-47-2021/HFW-43011(11)/208/ 2021-ADMIN, dated 09.03.2022 and necessary Guidelines in this respect have been also prescribed in the said orders."
"Accordingly, the Superintendents of all Hospitals are instructed to adhere strictly with the guideline prescribed in above stated orders for preparation of the Weekly Duty Roster of Medical Officers and other Staffs of their hospitals with available existing Human resource. Such Duty Roster should be circulated among the all concerned Medical Officers and other Staffs and be displayed at Outdoor, Indoor, Emergency and Diagnostic Service area prominently," mentioned the notice.
"The CMOH of the Districts should regularly monitor that the Duty Roster of Medical Officers and other Staffs of the hospitals under their control are prepared in accordance to stated orders and complied strictly by the concerned Medical Officer 86 other Staff of the hospitals," it added.
Earlier on 09.03.2022, the State had mentioned that while preparing the duty roster, the superintendent should keep in mind the following issues:
1. When 6 (six) or more Specialist MO are available in a discipline, there shoud be 3 (Three) Units in the respective discipline comprising of atleast 2 (Two) Specialist MOs in each unit. The Admission Day, Specialist OPD day and Cold OT days should be on separate days for each unit. The Cold OT may be run in Two Shifts, if possible, to improve the performance.
2. None of the Medical Officers should be allotted more than 8 hours of duty at a stretch during day 86 evening shift and not more than 12 hours at a stretch during night shift as far as practicable subject to availability of Human Resource.
3. The total shift Duty Rosters of any Medical Officer or Staff for not less 40 hours per week means "Not less than 40 hours per week but may be more than 40 hours per week if the situation demands" and it should be spread out over atleast 5-6 days in a week as far as possible.
4. In the Emergency, there should be atleast two MOs in each Evening 86 Night shift, so that atleast one MO will he available at Emergency, if other MO have to attend the Indoor on call. The Specialist MO of such discipline in which there is shortage of Specialist MO at a facility, may be exempted from Emergency duty subject to availability of Human Resource.
"The CMOH of the districts will supervise & monitor regularly over the adherence of the Duty Roster prepared by the Superintendent of the hospitals in the districts by the concerned Medical Officer & other Staff of the hospitals and will take immediate strict necessary action if there is any incident of non-compliance from the part of any Medical Officer or staff. He will also send a weekly report in this regard to the Hospital Administration Branch of the Directorate of Health Services through email at reporthospital.wb@gmail.com," the State had mentioned in the guidelines.
Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that back in 2022, the State Government had specified that private clinical establishments in West Bengal recruiting government doctors are required to obtain a No-Objection Certificate (NOC) from the government before engaging them.
To view the guidelines, click on the link below:
https://medicaldialogues.in/pdf_upload/bengal-govt-267877.pdf
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