Raids, crumbling infra 'force' over 50 Punjab doctors to resign in four months

Vishav Bharti

Chandigarh, August 3

A large number of government doctors are making a beeline for premature retirement from the Health Department amid a crackdown on those indulging in malpractices, raids on hospitals by ‘overenthusiastic’ AAP leaders and crumbling infrastructure.

Soon after coming to power, AAP leaders, including some MLAs and ministers, started raiding schools, police stations and hospitals. The biggest fall out of these raids and “shabby” treatment given to employees was witnessed in the Health and Medical Education Department, where suddenly the number of doctors resigning has gone up.

As per the government estimate, over 50 doctors have either applied for voluntary retirement scheme (VRS) or those not eligible have resigned in the past four months. Some ofthem even made videos before leaving and blamed the crumbling infrastructure and unfavourable circumstances for the resignation.

Govt hiding its inadequacies

The govt is hiding its inadequacies by mauling the health officials in the garb of surprise checks. This has dampened their morale and will lead to the collapse of health sector. — Dr Akhil Sarin, PCMS association head

System overhaul underway

Doctors quitting is an ongoing phenomenon. Despite this, the state hasn’t gone too strict on private practice by govt doctors. We are doing a system overhaul to produce specialists. — Ajoy Sharma, health secy

Most of the doctors who have resigned are from the clinical branches and can have a flourishing practice in the private sector. Notably, the state is already reeling under the shortage of specialist doctors.

In the recent past, around a dozen doctors have either resigned or have applied for VRS. As per the list compiled by the Punjab Civil Medical Services (PCMS) Association, a government doctors’ body, those who left the department in the recent past included orthopaedic surgeon Dr Dharmvir Kumar from Nakodar, medicine specialist Dr Mamta Sunda from Nawashahar, skin specialist Dr Radha Goel from Jagraon and surgeon Dr Milan Verma from Ludhiana.

Besides them, Dr Jagmohan Singh, a medicine specialist, who was posted as the Assistant Civil Surgeon in Sangrur has also resigned. Similarly, another medicine specialist Dr Sahebjot Singh from Baba Bakala has put in his papers. Dr Pragya, a gynaecologist, posted at the Primary Health Centre of Fatehgarh Churian in Gurdaspur and Dr Gurluv Singh Jaura, orthopaedic surgeon from Malout, too have resigned.

The PCMS Association says there is acute shortage of staff, medicines, infrastructure and funds, which had made it difficult for the doctors to work. “The public has high expectations from healthcare providers. This had led to a mismatch between the ground reality and the expectations. The budgetary allocations to the health sector are also meagre,” said Dr Akhil Sarin, president of the association.