Restore vacations to 52 days: Tanda medical teachers’ assn
Tribune News Service
Dharamsala, August 10
The Teachers Welfare Association of Medical College Tanda (TAMCOT) has written to the government to restore the annual vacations to 52 days.
Medical teachers alleged that the government had recently reduced their winter vacations from 45 to 38 days.
The association has requested the government to restore the seven days removed from the winter vacations and add these to summer vacations, making it 14 days in summer and 38 in winter.
TAMCOT, in a letter written to the Secretary, Health, a copy of which was provided to media, said Himachal Pradesh was served by single medical college, Indira Gandhi Medical College (IGMC) for 30 years since 1966 in an era when even private hospitals were scarce.
Stressful job conditions
Medical institutes have stressful job conditions, as patients with complications are referred here. Besides, there is teaching work for undergraduate, postgraduate classes and medical research. The vacations allow faculty to reflect on year’s research work, including thesis reviews, publications and to have a fresh, rejuvenated perspective, essential for medical research. — Teachers Welfare Association of Medical College Tanda
Even at that time, the annual vacations at the IGMC never affected patient care or medical education. In the current era with six medical colleges, one private medical college, one AIIMS and numerous private hospitals, we can be confident that the patient care shall not be affected. Medical colleges are unique in being dually responsible for delivering the tertiary level health care and providing medical education, including MBBS, PG courses and paramedical courses. Another striking difference of medical colleges from other health institutes is the duty hours. Whereas timings at all health institutions are 9.30 am to 4 pm, in medical colleges these are 8 am to 5 pm due to classes of various courses, TAMCOT said.
The association further alleged that in government medical colleges, the vacations for teaching faculty are as per the guidelines of rules 1972, subsequently amended by the Department of Personnel and Training. The centres of Higher Education like schools and colleges, higher judiciary and faculty members of the Medical Education Department are entitled to vacations in two halves — summer and winter.
As per the rules, the vacations in the educational institutes are to be permitted ensuring that at least 50 per cent of the faculty shall be present on duty at any given time. This can be increased to 66 per cent if vacations are divided in three halves. The Professor and Additional Professor cannot avail vacations together. As per the prevailing practice at Dr RPGMC Kangra, Tanda, all departments work efficiently during vacation period, including the undergraduate (UG) and postgraduate (PG) teaching, operative work, including routine OTs, accidental and trauma services and OPD services, TAMCOT said.
The association further said that medical institutes had stressful job conditions, as all patients with complications were referred to these institutes, besides additional teaching to the UG and PG classes and medical research. The vacations allow faculty to reflect on year’s research work, including theses’ reviews, publication work and to have a fresh, rejuvenated perspective, essential for medical research, TAMCOT said.
