Patna, July 31: Bihar Health Services Association (BHSA) — the body of government doctors in the state — has demanded extension of the retirement age of all regular doctors to 65 years, opposing the government’s decision to only extend the retirement age of specialists.
A five-member BHSA delegation met health department principal secretary Amarjeet Sinha on Friday to discuss several points. “The principal secretary told us that the government contemplates to extend the retirement age of doctors from 62 years to 65 years. It will benefit about 1,200 specialists but we do not want any discrimination like this, especially as general duty medical officer-rank doctors at Indira Gandhi Institute of Cardiology in Patna have been given the benefits. The government should increase the retirement age of all regular doctors,” said Dr Ranjit Kumar, the BHSA secretary.
The body also opposed the government’s proposal of introducing 25 per cent rural allowance for doctors working in “hard-to-reach” areas. “National Rural Health Mission recommends special benefits to doctors working in rural areas. All rural areas are hard to reach. This is another ground of discrimination that is unacceptable to us,” said Kumar.
The body also has apprehensions about certain clauses in the Clinical Establishment (Registration and Regulation) Act that was recently passed. “The principal secretary has assured us that our views would be taken care of when the guideline and rules of the act are laid,” one of the delegation members said.
The member added that around 1,800 doctors signed up for the mass voluntary retirement scheme (VRS) proposal that BHSA floated. In the first week of June, BHSA members had vowed to take up mass VRS if steps were not taken to fulfil their nine-point charter of demands, including implementation of the Andhra Pradesh model of Medical Professional Protection Act, same salary structure as that of central government and others, by August 5. “We will meet on August 7 to decide on our future course of action,” said Kumar.
