THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The directorate of medical education is yet to prepare the list of doctors who are on unauthorised absence from service or take stringent action against them in spite of facing extreme shortage of hands at the government medical college in the state. Sources said the directorate has not prepared the list of unauthorised absentees for the last couple years. According to rough estimates the number of doctors who are on unauthorised absence could be about 100, though officials denied the same.
Kottayam Medical College has about 20 doctors who are currently on leave. Most of them are from the clinical side. Similarly, there are 15 doctors from Thrissur Medical College and four each from Thiruvanant-hapuram and Alappuzha medical colleges respectively. These doctors are either on leave without allowance or on unauthorised absence. While authorities claim that termination is the only legal action against doctors found to be on unauthorised leave, in the absence of a list, they cannot proceed in such cases.
The list of doctors whose services are to be terminated, has to be forwarded to the Public Service Commission as a technical procedure for creation of new posts. Moreover, before cracking the whip on these doctors the medical education director also has to serve showcause notices seeking explanation for their unauthorised absence from duty. Sources said the possibility of these doctors returning to Government services is remote since most of them may have already taken up assignments in the private sector or may have gone abroad in search of greener pastures.
In case a doctor is working in more than one place while claiming full time profession in medical college, he is blatantly violating the Professional Conduct, Etiquette and Ethics Regulations 2002. The issue of unauthorised absence of doctors came up for discussions held between health minister K.K. Shailaja and representatives of Medical PG Association. The government is now planning to draw a list of doctors who either on long leave or on unauthorised absence.
