Trauma ward docs get bonus marks as those in hilly PHCs

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai: A duty doctor working in the accident or emergency ward of the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital in Chennai will enjoy the same benefits as a doctor posted at the primary health centre in remote Javadhu Hills during postgraduate admission, as per the proposed recommendations of the six-member committee formed by the state government to classify difficult and rural areas of the state-run hospitals and clinic.

Breaking away from the convention, the committee has recommended names of some departments even in city-based medical college hospitals and urban district hospitals, but has pushed for removal of some primary health centres in backward and rural districts. “The division this time is not about urban or remote, it’s about areas that are difficult or remote,” said Tamil Nadu Medical Services Corporation chairman P Umanath, who chaired the committee.

The committee has submitted a 15-page report to refine or identify PHCs and hospitals located in remote and difficult areas for awarding incentive marks to service candidates for admission to postgraduate degree or diploma courses for medical counselling, scheduled to begin in May.

It has prescribed two groups that will receive benefits. The category A will receive 100% of the maximum permissible incentive marks – 10% of marks over and above their NEET score for every year, not exceeding 30%. The second group, category B, will receive 40% of the maximum permissible incentive marks – 4% of marks over and above their NEET score for every year, not exceeding 30%.

The committee members said they had held elaborate discussions on the issue for two months before drawing up the guidelines using “hybrid” methods.

For instance, institutions in all hilly areas but not all institutions in the 16 backward districts will get the benefit. “But not all institutions in this district list will get the benefit. These institutions should be in difficult areas, having low density of doctors, high vacancies and poor health indicators, but not in municipal or corporation limits,” said director of medical education Dr Edwin Joe.

However, high pressure work units like CEmONC centres, trauma or accident or emergency care, or neonatal units, irrespective will be offered maximum incentive.

The committee has also recommended that the government should fight to retain 50% in-service quota for its doctors. “Unless it is retained, a large number of government doctors’ benefits will be poor,” said Doctors for Social Equality general secretary Dr G R Ravindranath. Tamil Nadu Government Doctors’ Association has urged the government to add 20 more institutions into the “difficult” areas list. “We are drawing up lists of some remote PHCs and hospitals where doctor have to walk several kilometres, or vacancies are high,” said Tamil Nadu Government Doctors’ Association president Dr K Senthil.

This year, the state will add 101 postgraduate medical seats across 14 government medical colleges, taking the total PG seats to 1,585. It will give 50% of the seats to all India quota. In 2017, the postgraduate admission process was entangled in a legal battle at the Madras high court. Admissions had to be cancelled and the process was stalled twice. The state government had given 50% of the seats to the all-India quota and reserved half of the remaining seats to doctors working with the government.

The committee report should be notified by the government before it can be adopted as rule for the upcoming counselling.