Medical College Administrators, NHM Director should be Medicos: Medical College Teacher Association

Shimla: Postings of Director, National Health Mission (NHM) and Additional Directors in medical colleges have been demanded by the Teachers Association of Medical College Tanda, Kangra (TAMCOT) in the Public interest.

TAMCOT President, Dr RS Jaswal demanded an urgent redressal for the post of NHM and Administrative officer in medical colleges. He said these posts ought to be filled by the college faculty or Medical officers. In other words, those who have undergone or possess Hospital administration diploma/degrees. This he said was necessary as non-medical people holding these posts were leading to implementation problems of the national program, leading to unnecessary wastage of money

The association accused the NHM director of calling for many unnecessary meetings just to satisfy his ego as it was observed that when the medical faculty reaches Shimla no meetings are held as more often than not the Director is unavailable for the same. “The extension in service to administrative posts like Head of the Departments (HODs), Principals of medical colleges and Director Medical Education (DME) in Medical Education department after the age of 62 years should be stopped.The extension if any should be for teaching only and in no way for an administrative post,” demanded the Association.

They backed their demand saying that extensions for administrative posts were not serving any purpose as recruitment was called for teaching positions. Administrative positions they said did not have people serving for longer than 10 years. They also stated that this was not being followed in any of the other states either.

They reiterated that the extension or re-employment policy followed by Haryana and Central government medical institutes is only for teaching profiles and not for administrative ones. The policy presently followed, they added was leading to selective extensions being granted to a few chosen ones and blocking faculty promotion avenues

TAMCOT told statesman that “The policy will create a vacuum after a few years leading to tired and retired, as these people will demand further extension till 70 to 80 years.”

The random appointments made in new medical colleges without taking into consideration seniority needed to be looked into, as some juniors have been appointed as designate consultants bypassing seniority.