Govt doctors not to indulge in private practices between 9 am to 4 pm: Bengal Health dept

Kolkata: Government service doctors in Bengal will not be able to indulge in private practices from 9 am to 4 pm, the state Health department has said in a fresh guideline. 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. A senior faculty will have to be in hospitals on night duty, the guidelines mandated. The department directed every medical college to enhance services at its emergency. It has also asked government hospitals to increase the number of OPDs to reduce the waiting time for patients. “Faculties have to be distributed equally in different units of clinical discipline and each unit should have at least one faculty member on admission days. One faculty member of each unit should be present in the hospital at night on admission days so that senior residents on-call can consult on treatment, referral, etc,” read the guidelines.

According to the guidelines, faculty members have to be present in OPDs on admission days from 9 am to 2 pm or until the last patient is attended to. The in-charge of every unit must ensure that a faculty member meets patients’ relatives twice a day. HODs must check on admitted patients of other units, apart from their own unit.