Govt forcing us with Temporary postings to New Medical Colleges just for NMC inspection, allege TN doctors

Chennai: Facing the inspection of the National Medical Commission (NMC) in the new medical colleges, the State Health Department is allegedly forcing the government doctors in Tamil Nadu for agreeing to dual posting.

Claiming this, the Legal Coordination Committee for Government Doctors recently pointed out how the doctors are being transferred on a temporary basis to show that there are no vacancies at the newly set up medical institutes, reports TOI.

The president of the committee Dr Perumal Pillai said, "Doctors are transferred from other medical colleges temporarily to show nil vacancies at the new colleges. They return to the colleges where they are originally posted after the inspection. In many cases, there are no hard copies of the transfer order. Doctors receive oral instructions to be present at a particular college at a particular time."

He issued a statement and clarified taking action against such doctors and stated, "The committee has taken action including recommending suspending licenses for these doctors."

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As per the association, the reason for this problem is that the State directorate of medical education did not conduct any counselling for promotions. Pointing out that there are scarcity of eligible doctors to be promoted from associate professor to professor and assistant professor to associate professor, the Committee president said, "The government did not conduct counselling on time and there are more than 200 doctors (of 2019 batch) currently working as associate professors in medical colleges. They completed three years by June 2022 and are qualified to become professors as per NMC rules but the government was delaying the conduct of promotion counselling. Due to this delay, though qualified doctors were available, doctors were being made to “impersonate” during inspections, turning them into “scapegoats."

He also pointed out how the key wings in the health department, directorate of medical education, directorate of medical services and directorate of drugs control have doctors posted as in-charge.

Meanwhile, while commenting on the matter, the president of TN Government Doctors' Association (TNGDA) told TOI that the government had confirmed about huge backlogs in the counselling process for promotions.

He mentioned, "The delays are unwarranted and are causing a huge crisis."

The Hindu adds that several government colleges have vacant posts of professors and associate professors and as per NMC, the shortage of faculty should not exceed 10%. However, the Committee has alleged that DME was forcing doctors to get transferred to those government medical colleges which were reeling under shortage of doctors.

However, the in charge of Directorate of Medical Education Dr Shanthi Malar disagreed with the allegations and mentioned, "Personal inspection by NMC is now being done for colleges that got permission in 2021-22. Since it was a Covid year, inspections were virtual. Physical verification is being done based on details already uploaded on NMC webpage. No new transfers are issued. Doctors are being asked to be present during the meeting."

Meanwhile, the committee has also questioned why the government has not appointed new directors after the DME and Director of Medical and Rural Health Services retired. Referring to the fact that the post of dean in Government Medical College, Villupuram was also lying vacant, the committee has demanded the authorities to conduct the counselling for promotion immediately.

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