Young doctors in Cuttack SCB Medical College & Hospital. Picture by Badrika Nath Das

Bhubaneswar, July 2: Members of Orissa Medical Services Association (OMSA) have termed the recent transfer of 159 doctors of their cadre as a punitive measure.

OMSA members feel the transfers have become a basic condition in a doctor’s appointment which in no way would inspire young doctors to join the state health services in future.

“Now they will think twice before applying and with the dynamic assured career progression (DACP) still a distant dream, there will be more brain drain. More and more candidates will join other state and central cadre or private institutions,’’ said OMSA president Dr Madhusudan Mishra.

DACP is the career progression scheme meant only for doctors and is currently implemented by the Centre and six states — Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Haryana, Bihar, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh.

“The duty hours of a doctor serving under the Orissa Medical Service are yet to be defined. There is no limit for emergency hours but only the outpatient department (OPD) service hours have been codified. If the government wants to ensure the quality of service, then there should be more than 12,000 doctors. Apparently, less than 3,000 doctors are currently working in the state,’’ Mishra said.

“Twelve thousand-plus doctors will be needed as per the requirement of the population. According to the norms prescribed by the Centre there should be at least one doctor for a population of 3,500, and in a hospital, one doctor for each 30 OPD patients and 10 indoor patients,’’ he clarified.

“Measures like biometric analysis, close circuit TV cameras, to monitor doctors might be impossible to procure without defining duty hours as the state should not expect the doctors to deliver goods like a robot,’’ said a former OMSA office-bearer.

“It takes around 5-10 years to build rapport with residents of a particular area. However, the condition of transfer as a basic condition has also become unnecessary in cases especially where doctors are not interested to go to the coastal belts as they are happy serving in areas elsewhere,’’ he said.

The OMSA president said: “Emotional and social relationship of the doctors with a particular locality must be respected and unless petitioned by him/her, there should not be any disturbance. At least, when there are less number of doctors and new doctors are not interested to join, the health department should go for safer alternatives.’’

Replying to a question in the Assembly recently, health minister Prasanna Acharya, however, indicated that from 2003-09, 2,255 students have passed out from three state medical colleges and1,783 have joined the Health Service department.

While in SCB Medical College and Hospital, Cuttack, there are vacancies for four professors, eight associate professors and 61 assistant professors, in MKCG Medical College and Hospital, Berhampur, 3, 14 and 35 vacancies are present at VSS Medical College and Hospital, Burla, has 3,13 and 35 vacancies.

He also added that in order to attract young doctors into the medical services, an entry-level assistant surgeon has been upgraded from Class-II to the rank of junior Class-I and with a payscale of Rs 15,600 – 39,100.

“Legislation has also been made to prevent violence against medical personnel and medical institutions and retirement age of regular doctors has been enhanced from 58 to 60 years,” said Acharya.

Countering against this statement, the OMSA members, however, said: “The CM’s assurance to bring in a transparent transfer policy should have been implemented prior to the ‘transfer drama’. There must be clear instructions to DACP, as the doctors remain utterly neglected in Orissa. If the doctors have to fight so much for their genuine dues after several years of service, then it would lead emotional distress in them.’’