Absent for long, 161 Haryana govt doctors face axe

Sushil Manav

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, June 28

As many as 161 government doctors who have been absenting themselves from duty for long face the axe.

Sources say the state government has decided to serve them notice through newspapers, asking them to rejoin duty within a specified time. If they fail to rejoin, the government will dismiss them from service.

Confirming the development, Health Minister Anil Vij said more than 150 doctors had been absent from duty for long, some of them for several years.

“We want to recruit new doctors to address the problem of shortage. We can recruit new people only against sanctioned posts. If more than 150 sanctioned posts are occupied by doctors who are not working, it is double jeopardy for us, as they neither working with us nor enabling us to fill those posts,” Vij said.

Asked whether or not the 161 doctors are those who executed a bond for serving the Haryana Government in lieu of pursuing their post-graduation, Vij replied in the negative. “They might have started private practice or joined service in other states without resigning from the Haryana Government,” he said.

Jasbir Singh Parmar, the president of the Haryana Civil Medical Services (HCMS), an organisation of government doctors in the state, claimed that poor service conditions in the state made the doctors to quit.

“The Delhi and Punjab Government give better salaries to their doctors. Besides, Delhi gives four assured career progressions (ACPs) in fourth, ninth, thirteenth and twentieth year of service, while Punjab gives three ACPs in fourth, ninth and fourteenth year, but Haryana gives three ACPs in fifth, tenth and fifteenth year of service,” Dr Parmar alleged.

Sources say the problem of shortage of doctors is of bigger proportions.

Sources said that of the 3,083 sanctioned posts of doctor (medical officer) in the Haryana Health Department, about 500 are lying vacant.

This does not mean that 2,583 doctors are actually working. Apart from 161 doctors who have been absent from duty, about 300 are on childcare leave on any given day and as many doctors are on paid study leave. And about 50 doctors are on deputation to Chandigarh.

To make matters worse, sources in the department say there is inequitable distribution of doctors across the state as doctors prefer postings in Panchkula and Gurugram.

“In all, 194 medical officers are posted in the Director of Health Services and other allied institutions in Panchkula, even when there is no post sanctioned for them. Besides, 18 doctors are working without a sanctioned post in Panchkula district,” the sources said.