Government doctors, other health department staff demand revision of cadre and recruitment rules

Mangaluru: Pressing for the fulfilment of long-pending demands, the Karnataka Government Medical Officers’ Association (KGMOA) and other employees’ associations of the health department have decided to launch a phased state-wide agitation from March 11.

Accordingly, all OPD services will be affected from March 11 to 15, said Dakshina Kannada (DK) unit KGMOA President Dr Deepak Rai.

He said that from March 16, all medical services will be stalled as part of the agitation. From March 11 to 15, only emergency services will be offered at government hospitals, which will affect all Primary Health Centres (PHCs), he told media persons.

The association has flagged long delays in revising cadre and recruitment rules, some of which have not been comprehensively updated for nearly 50 years. A major grievance concerns pending seniority lists. While the lists for General Duty Medical Officers and Senior Medical Officers were last finalised in 2009 and 2012 respectively, several other cadres have not seen revisions for years.

Dr Rai said no promotions have been granted to officers or employees across all cadres of the department for the past five years, and demanded that promotions be implemented immediately.

The association has also sought opportunities, as per rules, for in-service doctors, officers, and employees to pursue higher education and postgraduate studies. It further demanded rectification of deficiencies in the department’s transfer policy and an end to unscientific counselling-based transfers being carried out without addressing the shortcomings.

He said that in autonomous institutions under the Medical Education Department, as well as in the Food Safety and Quality Department, city corporations, and municipalities, appointments, promotions, and transfers to the sanctioned N-Cadre posts of the Health Department should be made only from among Health Department doctors, officers, and employees, and not from other departments.

The association demanded that vacant posts of doctors, paramedical staff, and other cadres in the department be filled to ensure better services to the public.

It has also sought job security and periodic, appropriate salary increments for contract doctors, employees, and NHM contract staff. Nearly 6,000 officers and employees working under centrally sponsored schemes in the department are currently being paid salaries and allowances once every three to four months for several years. Salaries and allowances should be disbursed in the first week of every month, they demanded.

Shortage of medicines 

DK unit KGMOA President Dr Deepak Rai urged the government to ensure periodic supply of adequate medicines to all government hospitals in the state through the department.

At present, there is a shortage of medicines, particularly insulin and antibiotics, due to short supply from central logistics. “We have been procuring medicines from hospital funds to meet the shortages. Drugs are likely to be supplied only in April. Until then, how are we expected to sustain?” association office-bearers questioned.

Though the e-Aushada portal shows the medicines are available when doctors at PHCs search for them, supplies are not dispatched after placing the demand due to the actual shortage, they said.