Doctors' body urges West Bengal govt to regularise non-service PG doctors

The Association of Health Service Doctors in West Bengal has urged the government to regularise the non-service postgraduate doctors as senior residents in Covid-19 hospitals.

These medicos are currently referred to as 'contractual medical officers', the left-leaning association said.

In a letter to the health and family welfare department on Saturday, secretary of the association Manas Gumta said, the government's recent move to appoint fresh postgraduate (PG) doctors, who are not associated with health services presently, as contractual MOs in Covid-19 hospitals, will not enable them to get due benefits as per Medical Council of India (MCI) rules.

"The deployed medicos should be accorded the nomenclature of 'Senior Residents' instead of Contractual MOs to enable them to get the legitimate benefit ... for their future career in Medical Education Services (if they opt for) in terms of promotion to the rank of Assistant Profssor...," the letter said.

The young doctors, through departmental notification, may be officially given attachment to Medical Colleges and subsequently be inducted in Covid-19 establishments as per necessity, the association said.

The doctors' body also suggested that the tenure of these PG trainees in Covid-19 care centres be deducted from their mandatory 36 months bond period.

While the government had earlier promised to reduce the three-year-bond period of PG trainees based on the time spent in treating Covid-19 patients, there had been no notification to this effect so far, it said.