Stop penalising doctors for not achieving fixed targets, TNGDA sees red

Chennai: After the implementation of the Chief Minister’s Comprehensive Health Insurance Scheme (CMCHIS), the Tamil Nadu Government Doctors Association (TNGDA) has requested the Health department to ensure that doctors are not penalized for failing to achieve targets fixed by the CMCHIS scheme. 

K. Senthil, the association's president, and N. Ravishankar, its general secretary, released a statement after the State executive committee meeting last week outlining a number of demands.

Nearly 20% of patients who frequent government hospitals received care through CMCHIS. The association stated that it is improper to hold State-level review meetings that are only focused on CMCHIS, to assign targets for doctors, and to threaten those who do not fulfill those targets with transfer and penalty.

The World Health Organisation has clearly instructed for almost 25 years now that the word “target” should not be used even for family welfare goals. The association has requested the department to refrain from taking any steps against the doctors, who have more important non-CMCHIS-related duties, reports The Hindu.

According to TNGDA, during the audits of maternal deaths, collectors were tough with doctors. When the deceased's family members were there, doctors were treated like criminals. The association claimed that there was power abuse and that the officials did not understand the distinction between an audit and an inquiry.

A revised Government Order (GO) on the working hours for doctors at primary health centres was also requested by the association in addition to the implementation of Government Order 293 which offered allowances for doctors. 

TNGDA will hold meetings to organize protests in areas through February 26. Early in March, the association intended to stage protests to raise its demands at district administrative offices or government medical college hospitals. Doctors from all hospitals, with the exception of those on emergency duty, would consider going on leave en masse from March 15 if the government does not comply with their requests. 

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