Doctors question recruitment drive

KOLKATA: After all these years, the state health department has finally started holding campus interviews to recruit doctors, especially in rural areas. The interview process started on Tuesday, but the recruitment drive has already come under fire from the medical associations in the city.
The advertisement issued for the campus interview-cum-counselling of general duty medical officers on ad-hoc basis has specified that only those who passed MBBS in 2008 can apply.The doctors' associations are objecting on both counts.
"There has been no recruitment of doctors for several years. Now that they are doing so, why should only doctors from one particular batch be preferred?" said Sanjay Banerjee, secretary Indian Medical Association (Bengal chapter).
Banerjee is also unhappy with the ad-hoc appointments being offered.
MBBS pass-outs from 2008, who have completed a year working as house staff or will do so in another month, are also eligible.
R D Dubey, president of IMA (Kolkata), said the state government's policy was wrong. "There is no clear-cut policy on appointment, promotions and transfer. The government should come up with a clear-cut policy first," Dubey said.
Sudipto Roy, the Trinamool Congress MLA from Serampore and a member of the Assembly standing committee on health, said he had never heard of batch-specific recruitment. "There are MBBS pass-outs from previous batches who are yet to get jobs," he pointed out.
Director of health services Aniruddha Kar clarified that 2008 was taken as a starting point. "There had to be a cut-off year for the process to start. Since 2008 was the last batch that had completed the course, they were asked to apply," Kar said.
He clarified that the door wasn't closed on MBBS pass-outs from previous years. "They can apply under the National Rural Health Mission," Kar said.