In a bid to curb the alarmingly high attrition rate among doctors employed in Delhi government hospitals, the Department of Health has revamped its service rules. With the state government struggling to formalise its own cadre of medical personnel under Delhi Government Health Services (DGHS), all new recruits are hired on contract basis as an interim arrangement.
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In a bid to curb the alarmingly high attrition rate among doctors employed in Delhi government hospitals, the Department of Health has revamped its service rules. With the state government struggling to formalise its own cadre of medical personnel under Delhi Government Health Services (DGHS), all new recruits are hired on contract basis as an interim arrangement.
A senior official in the Health department said, “Since all our recruitments will be on contract basis till the DGHS cadre is regularised, we are faced with allegations of lack of transparency in the hiring process, excessive recruitment in some hospitals while others are short of doctors. In several cases, particularly in super-specialty departments, attrition rates are sometimes as high as 70-80 per cent.”
The official said the decision to revamp service rules was taken as the government planned to start several new hospitals before the regularisation of DGHS. “Doctors join us and leave within a few months, causing inconvenience to patients. It also stops us from making several of our hospitals fully functional due to a shortage of manpower,” he said.
From now, a primary recruitment screening test will be conducted under the nodal authority of Dean of Maulana Azad Medical College (MAMC). After this, the shortlisted candidates will be put through a round of interviews under a team of experts called the Delhi medical selection committee, the tenure of which will be two years. This committee, in its maiden run, will be headed by former dean of MAMC Dr A K Aggarwal, former director of GB Pant Hospital Dr Veena Chowdhury and the HoD of the discipline concerned from MAMC, GB Pant Hospital or the University College of Medical Sciences (UCMS).
“The committee will also have two external specialists in the discipline concerned from top Central government hospitals including AIIMS, RML Hospital or Lady Hardinge Medical College, or the Army Research and Referral (R&R) Hospital. One member will be nominated from outside the government,” the official said.
The revised rules also make it clear that contractual employments will be made for a period of 11 months initially and only against vacant posts, so there will be no question of inter-hospital transfers.
Doctors who wish to terminate their contracts will have to inform the medical superintendent of the hospital one month in advance. The MS will have to inform the Health department within a week of the doctor’s resignation.
