Chennai: With a lot of posts continuing to lie vacant for over six months in the top posts of the Tamil Nadu Medical Services, the Tamil Nadu Government Doctors’ Association (TNGDA) has urged the government to immediately fill the same.
“Eight posts in the Directorate of Medical Services, and three posts for Deans in Government Medical Colleges and Hospitals, and the post of the Directorate of Medical Education and that of a special officer at the Government Omandurar Multi Super Specialty Hospital have been lying vacant for a long time,” said president of the Association Dr K. Senthil. “We want the government to fill up these vacancies with no further delay,” he added.
“It becomes difficult for the hospitals and medical colleges too when these posts lie vacant. Filling it with a doctor to serve on a temporary basis makes matters more complicated for the doctors,” said a government hospital doctor.
In a letter addressed to principal secretary J. Radhakrishnan, the association has also demanded that some amendments be made in the criteria to select doctors for the panel.
“As per the rule, all these posts, right from the dean to the additional director of medical services, the doctors should have at least a year’s service remaining to be eligible for the panel. What usually happens is that a person having barely 13 to 15 months of service will be included in the panel, for which it takes three to six months to get approved,” said Dr Senthil.
As the doctors would hardly be left with six months until retirement, the association demanded that the criteria be changed to two years instead of one year of service.
Also included in the letter to the health secretary was a demand for the state government to intervene in the issue of a senior health official in Theni district allegedly misbehaving with his female colleagues.
