Questions galore over 'backdated' dismissals at GTB COVID facility

New Delhi: After 31 Junior Resident doctors were dismissed from their contractual service at the 500-bedded Covid facility adjacent to the GTB hospital without prior notice or explanation, these doctors are now running helter-skelter looking for an explanation and new jobs.

Many of these doctors had decided to join the Delhi facility from other parts of the country on the promise that their service in times of pandemic will get them a preference for government jobs in the future, as mentioned in a notice from the PMO earlier this month.

While the GTB hospital administration, which is managing the facility, has refused to provide an explanation to the doctors, one official has said that these doctors could have been let go because they were no longer needed as Covid cases had dipped.

However, the residents who were dismissed have now raised more questions about their dismissal. One of them, for instance, asked why the facility had replaced all of them with interns from the GTB hospital if the requirement for doctors had diminished.

Moreover, while the contracts they had signed were valid for 89 days, subject to dismissal before, if required, the doctors have asked why they were dismissed with a backdated order. The notice dismissing these 31 JRs was issued on May 23. But the doctors were informed of it only on May 24 when they went to sign their time-sheet.

"On Monday night, we had contacted administrative staff at the facility, after rumours of our dismissal, asking whether we should come to work (on Tuesday). We were told that no decision had been taken and we should report for duty", one Junior Resident said.

In addition to this, the doctors, many of whom spoke to Millennium Post, on condition of anonymity, said that they were clueless as to why they had been selectively dismissed. Many of them speculated that it could be because they had raised issues of poor PPE kits and infrastructure with Health Minister Satyendar Jain when he was visiting the site.

Some other doctors thought that they were dismissed perhaps because they had demanded that they be paid for the extra 12-hour night shift they had been assigned on alternate days.

Significantly, the doctors have not been paid for the 8-9 days of services that they provided at the facility and have said the administration is not replying to their queries on when they will receive their pay. Some of the doctors said they are now left in lurch as demand for doctors is reducing now.

Some of the junior residents had also visited Dr Rajesh Kalra, Assistant MS at GTB, on Monday, who had assured them of no dismissals and a "strong note" to the Delhi government. But the doctors were informed on Tuesday that he had contracted the virus and could not speak to them. Several attempts to contact Dr Kalra or other officials in the Delhi Government's Health Department went unanswered.