Health dept seeks roster of doctors in govt medical colleges
Kolkata: The state Health department has sought the duty roster of all the senior and junior doctors of all the government run hospitals and medical colleges for the next one month aiming to keep a close watch on if the doctors are properly discharging their duties.
According to sources in the Health department, senior officials of the department may conduct surprise visits to check the attendance of the doctors. A surveillance will also be maintained to find out if the doctors were performing their duties as per their duty rosters. The senior health officials may also examine the CCTV footage to ascertain their presence in the hospitals.
It was also learnt that action may be taken against the doctors who will be found not discharging their duties properly as per the rosters. Action will be taken if any doctors are found to be not present in the hospitals during their duty hours. Allegations often surface that government service doctors attend duties in private health establishments when they are supposed to be in state-run hospitals. The state Health department has recently issued a fresh guideline saying that government service doctors in Bengal will not be able to indulge in private practices from 9 am to 4 pm. It also stated that the faculty members at state medical colleges have to work seven hours a day and 42 hours a week from Monday to Saturday. “Faculty members must not engage in private practice in duty hours (9 am to 4 pm, Mondays to Saturdays) and also during floor, emergency, or on-call duty hours,” said the guideline. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee during a recent meeting at Nabanna directed Health secretary Narayan Swaroop Nigam to take steps so that the accountability of doctors to the patients in government hospitals can be fixed.
Meanwhile, the West Bengal Medical Council has lodged a complaint with the police against four senior doctors in the state stating that these doctors have created hindrance in the normal activities of the state medical council.
