National Health Mission suspends thousands of doctors citing lack of funds, MP HC stays order

Indore: Putting a stay on the National Health Mission (NHM) order of terminating thousands contractual AYUSH doctors in Madhya Pradesh, the Indore bench of High Court has issued notice in the matter.

While the National Health Mission had terminated their service citing lack of funds, the HC bench comprising of Justice Pranay Verma stayed the same and sought response on the plea within six weeks, reports TOI.

These doctors had joined the service in May 2020 while the country was dealing with the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic. Hiring these AYUSH doctors, NHM used to pay them a stipend of Rs 25,000 for their work.

However, NHM fired these thousands of doctors on March 31 and it cited lack of funds as the reason for firing the doctors. Challenging the NHM order, five AYUSH doctors approached the High Court.

Also Read: Madhya Pradesh: Patients treated by AYUSH doctors at Block Health Fairs

As per the latest media report by the Times of India, the counsel for the petitioner doctors, Nimish Pathak pointed out how NHM on the one hand sacked the contractual AYUSH doctors citing lack of funds and how on the other, it advertised for around 312 such posts of AYUSH practitioners for hiring them on contractual basis.

He also referred to the fact that these doctors had been forced to join the NHM services and even ESMA had been imposed against them for this purpose. It was further submitted by the counsel for the petitioner doctors how several doctors had to leave behind their practises and hospitals for joining NHM services.

At this outset, the counsel for the doctors also referred to a criminal proceeding that had been initiated against a doctor for his refusal to join NHM and the fact that the doctor was trying to join a hospital in the middle of the pandemic.

The counsel argued that the doctors are in lurch after two years.

Taking note of all the submissions made by the AYUSH doctors, the HC bench put a stay on the NHM termination order. Issuing notice in the matter, the bench sought to know the response of the concerned authorities within six weeks.

Also Read: Health Ministry counts 5.65 Lakh AYUSH doctors, and 13,01,319 allopathic doctors in India