PUNE: The state health department has increased the age of retirement of 41 medical officers and senior health officials by two years — from 58 years to 60 — citing serious manpower crunch.
The decision was taken as 28 medical officers and 13 senior-ranking health officials were due for retirement on May 31 which, the ministry officials said, would have further hampered services at various levels of patient-care and healthcare administration.
However, the move has not gone down well with many employees of the health department, who said the decision is just a temporary arrangement to cover up the large number of posts that are lying vacant in the department for years. "Instead of increasing retirement age of senior health officials working at administrative posts, the state should have increased the retirement age of doctors," they said.
"We have tried to fill up the posts of medical officers and specialists doctor, but the response has not been encouraging as qualified people are not willing to work at state-run hospitals and departments. Similarly, people are also averse to working at places which are away from their hometowns. All these factors have resulted in large number of posts lying vacant for years. Hence, we have decided to increase the retirement age of 28 medical officers and 13 senior-ranking officials who were supposed to retire on May 31," said a state health ministry official.
Another official said, "There is an urgent need to overhaul the human resource wing at the state health department. Currently, the work environment is not conducive and it has a dampening effect on the morale of employees. How a medical officer working at a state-run hospital at an administrative post will feel motivated if he or she is not given sufficient opportunity to grow? People work for years but do not get promoted which is absolutely unacceptable."
The decision was taken as 28 medical officers and 13 senior-ranking health officials were due for retirement on May 31 which, the ministry officials said, would have further hampered services at various levels of patient-care and healthcare administration.
However, the move has not gone down well with many employees of the health department, who said the decision is just a temporary arrangement to cover up the large number of posts that are lying vacant in the department for years. "Instead of increasing retirement age of senior health officials working at administrative posts, the state should have increased the retirement age of doctors," they said.
"We have tried to fill up the posts of medical officers and specialists doctor, but the response has not been encouraging as qualified people are not willing to work at state-run hospitals and departments. Similarly, people are also averse to working at places which are away from their hometowns. All these factors have resulted in large number of posts lying vacant for years. Hence, we have decided to increase the retirement age of 28 medical officers and 13 senior-ranking officials who were supposed to retire on May 31," said a state health ministry official.
Another official said, "There is an urgent need to overhaul the human resource wing at the state health department. Currently, the work environment is not conducive and it has a dampening effect on the morale of employees. How a medical officer working at a state-run hospital at an administrative post will feel motivated if he or she is not given sufficient opportunity to grow? People work for years but do not get promoted which is absolutely unacceptable."
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