Nearly 4,000 posts of doctors in general and specialist categories are lying vacant in Government Hospitals across Tamil Nadu.
Three months ago, the Medical Recruitment Board conducted the qualifying examinations to fill 1,727 vacancies in general and 2,142 in speciality categories and short-listed the candidates for interview. However, a day before the interview, all the candidates were informed that the interviews had been postponed.
While the Director of Public Health is responsible for all postings, the Director of Medical and Rural Services and the Director of Medical Education must provide the list of vacancies to the DPH to complete the procedure.
According to the Tamil Nadu Government Doctors Association, the DMS and the DME, under whose purview the secondary/rural and teaching medical college hospitals fall, have not yet provided the vacancy list. A government doctor admitted that it had impacted the various programmes being run by the State adversely.
The provisionally selected candidates are in a dilemma, as many of them have submitted resignation letters to hospitals they were serving in anticipation of the postings in government hospitals. A doctor said, “Last year, due to the elections the government had speeded up the postings, but this year there is no such compulsion.”
G.R. Ravindranathan, General Secretary of Doctors’ Association for Social Equity says: “Around 430 doctors had consented to appear for the interview, but were not given postings. Some doctors have been telling me that money was demanded from those seeking transfers. We need proper investigation to rule out such allegations of corruption.”
Once recruited, these doctors will be posted to Primary Health Centres in rural Tamil Nadu and other State-run hospitals.
A government doctor admits that it had impacted programmes being run by the State