The association of junior doctors urged Deputy Chief Minister T. Rajaiah, who is also the Health Minister of the State to scrap the mandatory one-year rural service. The junior doctors who met the Minister recently requested him to consider permanent recruitment of junior doctors at all the levels instead of making them to enter into a bond for mandatory one-year rural service.
According to the medicos, both in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, there is a need to recruit close to 2,375 doctors at every level in the State-run hospitals. In a memorandum submitted to the Minister, the junior doctors also requested for scrapping of the proposal from private medical colleges to have their own entrance examination for admission into under-graduate and post-graduate medical courses.
The junior doctors also expressed their resentment over the proposal from private medical colleges to ‘standardise’ their annual medical fee to Rs. 6 lakh. “This will put an additional burden of Rs. 420 crore on the fees reimbursement scheme of the State Government. We have requested the Minister not to consider this proposal from the private medical colleges,” the medicos said.
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The medicos maintained that the Minister, after listening to them, requested for more time to address the issues raised in the memorandum. The junior doctors said that the Minister promised them to meet again and discuss the issue in detail.