Tamil Nadu: PG in service doctor protest on non service doctor recruitments by board

Chennai: The recent recruitments of nonservice doctors, through the Medical Recruitment Board (MRB,) saw 100 postgraduate in-service doctors stage a protest in front of the Directorate of Medical Education’s office.The protesting doctors have also filed a case in the Madras High Court.

The 500 nonservice doctors taken on by the state government have been posted in various medical college hospitals; a cause of worry for protesting post graduates doctors, about their own future. In three months time, these PG students will have passed out and have no vacancies in medical college hospitals, to apply for.

“We always did government service, but now the government ignored us and directly posted non-service doctors in medical colleges hospitals. This would mean no vacancies would be left for us in medical colleges by the time we complete our PG. We would be again pushed back to district or taluk hospitals in rural areas,” one of the protesters told Indian Express .

Two years back, the government lay in wait for the postgraduates to finish their courses to conduct PG counselling sessions through the Directorate of Medical Education(DME).Presently these appointments are being done through the Medical Recruitment Board through walk-in interviews, the doctor further added.

The option to approach private hospitals was also out as they had entered a bond with the government, saying they will do government service till superannuation. “It’s like the government taking advantage of it,” added another protesting doctor pleading anonymity.

Speaking to Indian Express, Director of Medical Education, Dr A Edwin Joe stated, “we recruited the candidates since there was a need for doctors in all medical colleges hospitals as we had to meet the Medical Council of India norms. The doctors will be posted wherever there is a necessity,” he added.

The protestors have also demanded that the temporarily appointed MRB candidate posts also be shown as vacancies, during in-service PG counselling to be conducted, in the future.

They demanded that the variance between superannuation bond of service doctors and MRB-recruited doctors be set right. The protestors also met Health Secretary, J Radhakrishnan and Edwin Joe to submit written representations.