ENT, eye specialists perform post-mortems; get Rs 4 per case!

Sunit Dhawan

Tribune News Service

Rohtak, May 26

Thanks to the unavailability of forensic experts, non-specialist doctors as well as those working as medical specialists in areas like medicine, eye, ENT and orthopaedics are made to conduct post-mortem examinations in the state.

To add insult to injury, the Haryana Government offers Rs 4 as post-mortem allowance per case to HCMS doctors. Most of the doctors don’t claim the pittance offered in the name of allowance.

“Specialist doctors posted at the General Hospitals across the state get a conveyance allowance of Rs 150 per month while those posted in the villages get just Rs 500 per month as a rural health allowance,” said Dr Jasbir Singh Panwar, president of the Haryana Civil Medical Services Association, here today.

In a media interaction, Dr Panwar pointed out that associations across the country had been demanding that the NPA paid to doctors at the state-run hospitals should be increased from 25 per cent to 40 per cent of the basic pay.

“However, as per the recommendation of the Seventh Pay Commission, the government proposes to cut it down to 20 per cent,” he lamented.

Dr Sheelkant Pajni, an executive member of the association, maintained that the Health Department, which was already facing an acute shortage of specialist doctors, would be abandoned by a number of serving doctors if such cuts on their perks and allowances continued.