‘Doctors recruited for unrelated specialities’

The postgraduate (PG) students at Madurai Medical College and other government medical colleges in Tamil Nadu, who have been protesting for nearly two weeks against alleged irregularities in the recent doctors recruitment, have now pointed out that a considerable number of doctors had been appointed to departments unrelated to their specialities.

The students showed a leaked letter sent by the office of the Director of Medical Education (DME) asking heads of all government medical college hospitals to utilise the service of these doctors in their relevant speciality instead of the department to which they were now posted.

“Then why were these doctors recruited for vacancies in different departments. Does it not indicate widespread violation of norms in the appointments,” asked a student, speaking on anonymity.

Of the roughly 450 PG-completed doctors recruited through the Medical Services Recruitment Board in November through a walk-in interview, 181 were appointed for vacancies in institutions that come under the Directorate of Medical Education, according to a statement issued by Minister for Health and Family Welfare C. Vijayabaskar.

The circular sent by DME’s office had a list of 71 of these 181 doctors. The list included doctors with MD in Paediatrics but recruited to Obstetrics and Gynaecology department. Similarly, the list also had doctors qualified in Orthopaedics but posted in Cardiothoracic Surgery, qualified in ENT but posted in Paediatric Surgery and other such instances of appointments to unrelated fields.

Citing the list, the protesting students alleged that the recruitment was done in a ‘hurried’ manner to accommodate the candidates in the vacancies available in any of the departments. “Now, they are transferring them to their relevant departments where vacancies did not exist at the time of recruitment,” another student claimed.

Pointing out that the list also included transfers to some ‘Newly Created Posts’ in the department relevant to the appointed candidates, the students questioned why these posts were not created prior to the recruitment.

The students began the protest around two weeks ago demanding the cancellation of the recruitment done in November as it was done in gross violation of norms, according to them.

Their primary allegations included opaqueness in the recruitment process, no interviews or examinations to test the quality of the applicants, failure to show these vacancies during the routine recruitment done earlier this year and jeopardizing the opportunities for ‘Service’ PG doctors and students, who had served in government hospitals after their MBBS course.

Mr. Vijayabaskar, however, denied all allegations of irregularities in a recent statement and appealed to the students to give up the protest.