Surgeries delayed and quality services to the patients affected across Tamil Nadu govt hospitals now!!
Have you been witnessing poor quality of service to the patients and delayed surgery etc at the Tamil Nadu medical college hospitals?
The reason for the above is mainly due to absence of enough doctors at these hospitals in the state. It is brought out that atleast 35% of the doctors posts in the Directorate of Medical Education have been vacant. It must be taken into account that on Monday, the members of the TN government doctors association met some health officials at the secretariat and have urged the government to organise counselling for promotions to fill up the vacant posts.
According to Dr. Senthil, TN government doctors association president, positions like assistant, associate and professors in the government medical colleges and hospitals were not direct recruitments to the government. He spoke about how doctors who join as medical officers in the primary health centres get placed in the teaching and non teaching positions at the medical colleges after they clear the post graduation studies. In the beginning, the doctors who join as assistant professors become eligible for promotion as associate professors after 5 year of experience. These doctors from associate professors become professors in another 3 years.
Point to be noted is that on an average it would take a minimum 17 years for a doctor with post graduation to become an associate professor and minimum 8 years after that to become a professor. He was of the opinion that to fill up the vacant posts the TN govt must conduct promotion counselling for associate professors and professors every year.
Information gathered is that the 2024 round of counselling from assistant professor to associate professor is still due because the state has completed the promotions for 2023. As a result, the 2025 round of counselling for posts of associate professors and professors etc has been delayed. As the officials have not yet conducted promotions on time, there are now posts of atleast 400 professors, 800 associate professors and 1800 assistant professors vacant.
For deficiencies, this year, as many as 36 govt medical colleges across TN have received show cause notices from the National Medical Commission. It is known that the National Medical Commission is the apex body that regulates medical education across India. Vacancies in faculty positions were one of the main deficiencies and there were some departments that had even 80% deficiency.
