Citing exigency, Health Dept. issues orders posting 51 PGsto Nagapattinam, Tiruvallur, Nilgiris govt. medical colleges

Citing exigency, Health Dept. issues orders posting 51 PGsto Nagapattinam, Tiruvallur, Nilgiris govt. medical colleges

Serena Josephine M.

CHENNAI 09.11.2024 

On a single day, the Health Department issued orders deputing 58 medical officers — a majority of them being postgraduate medical students — from major government medical colleges to those in Nagapattinam, Tiruvallur, The Nilgiris and Tiruvarur.

Official sources and senior doctors said that the deputation was aimed at addressing manpower shortage in these government medical colleges.

In one of the two orders issued on November 5, the Directorate of Medical Education (DME) and Research had, citing “exigency”, asked the deans of five medical colleges — Thanjavur Medical College; KAPV Medical College, Tiruchi; Coimbatore Medical College; Government Mohan Kumaramangalam Medical College, Salem; and Madras Medical College — to relieve 51 PGs to undergo the District Residency Programme (DRP) at the specified institutions. Eighteen of the 51 PGs were from the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology; 15 from Paediatrics; and 18 from Anaesthesia. They were told to join the medical colleges in Tiruvarur, Nagapattinam, The Nilgiris, and Tiruvallur on November 11. However, official sources said that the next batch for the three-month DRP postings mandated for PGs was scheduled to begin only in January 2025.

In the other deputation order, seven medical officers in the cadre of junior residents, senior residents and assistant professors in general medicine, obstetrics and gynaecology, and forensic medicine in the government medical colleges in Tiruvarur and Thanjavur were deputed to the Nagapattinam medical college for three months on “administrative grounds”.

A government doctor, on the condition of anonymity, said that most of the doctors in the Nagapattinam medical college were those posted during their bond period, and a number of them had since been relieved from service.

“There were a lot of vacancies even prior to this. The department is expecting 800 regular service PGs, and 1,200 Non-Service PGs for bond posting in February. So, they are trying to manage the situation with DRP postings and diversions,” he said.

Another doctor said that manpower from the Tiruvarur medical college was diverted to Nagapattinam when the Tiruvarur medical college was facing a severe shortage.

A senior doctor said that such temporary arrangements would not help. “No new posts were created for several years. The actual vacancy position is not shown in many institutions. A restructuring exercise taken up in 2019 led to a decrease in the number of posts,” he said.