Hospital duty ad irks doctors

PATNA: Doctors have reacted sharply to the state health department's advertisement in newspapers which alleged the doctors were violating the department's August 13 circular which made it mandatory for the doctors posted in government medical colleges & hospitals, IGIMS and IGIC to mark their attendance twice - once when they reported for duty and again when they called it a day.
The ad on September 6 said the doctors were pulling the wool over the eyes of the administration by returning home immediately after marking their attendance and coming again in the evening to mark their second attendance. Through the ad, the department urged the people to turn sort of whistleblowers and provided them telephone numbers to lodge their complaints about doctors not found on duty so that action could be taken against them.
Doctors of government medical colleges, IMA representatives and Bihar Health Services Association (BHSA) members held a meeting on Friday and condemned the circular, terming it as an affront to the doctors. They said the move would encourage antisocial elements and lead to increase in the incidents of attack on doctors.
"It seems the government feels doctors alone are to blame for all the ills afflicting the state's health sector. But the fact is that we have been doing our best to provide quality medicare to the people even though there is acute shortage of doctors in the state," said state IMA president Dr A K Thakur.
BHSA general secretary Dr Ajay Kumar berated the bureaucracy for the ills afflicting the health sector. He said the government was not paying attention to lack of human resources and shortage of medicines at government hospitals. It also failed to get MCI nod to open new medical colleges in the state, he said.
Dr Kumar also feared the ad would goad antisocial elements into violent action against doctors. "We will soon meet the chief minister and the health minister," he said.
Incidentally, the doctors had earlier voiced their protests against the circular when it was issued last month.