New Bond Policy: Gujarat proposes 1.5 years of Mandatory Service for doctors completing MBBS, PG degree
Gandhinagar: Formulating a new bond policy for doctors who fail to adhere to their service bonds after completing both MBBS and Postgraduate medial courses, the State Government of Gujarat has proposed to allow such doctors to serve for only one-and-a-half years instead of the mandatory service of two years.
This proposal for the new bond policy was announced by the Health Minister of the State Rushikesh Patel during the Question Hour at the State Assembly on Monday.
Referring to the fact that several bonded doctors do not join government service and do not pay the bond penalty and prepare for NEET PG entrance examination, the Minister announced at the Assembly, "Those who have signed the bonds and do not report to work are not handed over certificates for medical practice. But mostly, it is seen that doctors, who do not join or who do not pay the bond money, prepare for NEET (National Eligibility cum Entrance Test) for postgraduate courses. This we do not come to know."
"We are going to make a new policy wherein we will allow a student who has completed both MBBS and PG to serve (in the rural areas) for 1.5 years instead of the two years. Or else, the student has to pay Rs 20 lakh bond fee for MBBS and Rs 40 lakh for the PG course for freeing from the bond," mentioned the Minister.
Last year, Medical Dialogues had reported that around 67% of MBBS doctors in Gujarat skipped bond service duty in the last two years. The data in this regard was shared by the State Government during the budget session of the Assembly.
Providing exact figures, the State Government of Gujarat had informed the assembly that only 608 out of 1,879 MBBS doctors reported for duty in 2020 and 2021 and the Government has to recover an amount of Rs 38.15 crore from those absent doctors as bond payment
As per the latest media report by Indian Express, taking note of the tendency among the doctors to skip bond service duty after completing MBBS course, the Gujarat Government has now proposed a new bond policy where doctors who fail to adhere to their bond service terms for both MBBS and PG courses will be allowed to serve only for 1.5 years instead of two years of mandatory service.
Apart from this, the Health Minister Rushikesh Patel further informed the Assembly that "In the past three years, Rs 139 crore has been recovered from doctors across the State for not fulfilling their service bonds."
He further mentioned that students completing super speciality courses need to pay a penalty of Rs 50 lakh for not serving the government for one year in the rural areas, according to the bond terms.
While replying to supplementary questions in this regard, the Minister further mentioned that several doctors in the state do not serve in the rural areas according to the bond as "they have vacancies to serve in other places."
During the Question Hour at the assembly, the State Government further admitted that until now Rs 18.25 crore if yet to be recovered from 359 doctors in the State.
The rules regarding bond service have changed over the years. Back in 2013, MBBS and PG graduates needed to serve in the rural areas for three years or pay Rs 5 lakh and Rs 10 lakh penalty respectively. In 2014, the Government exempted the doctors pursuing nonclinical subjects from the bond condition as such posts were not available in the Primary Health Centres and Community Health Centres.
Later, following a Supreme Court order, the Government back in 2018 deleted the bond condition for AIQ students for both MBBS and PG medical courses. Back in 2019, the bond tenure was reduced to one year but the amount of penalty was increased to Rs 20 lakh for the MBBS and Rs 40 lakh for the PG medical students respectively.
The daily adds that back in 2020, the State announced to consider COVID duty as a part of the mandatory rural service tenure. At that time, service in COVID hospitals were being considered as double the time served under rural tenure. Later in April 2021, the Government extended the residency period of final year PG students by three months and counted it as part of bond service in a 1:1 ratio.
Following this, in July 2021, the Health Department revoked the earlier GR and announced that bond service period will be counted on par with the non-COVID times at 1:1 ratio.
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