Silchar consumer rights body opposes amended service rule of health department

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

SILCHAR, Feb 23: The transfer policy recently declared by the State Health and Family Welfare department to regulate transfers and postings of teaching faculty of government medical colleges will adversely impact Silchar Medical College and Hospital (SMCH), says Biplob Kumar Goswami, general secretary, Grahak Suraksha Samiti (GSS), in a statement here.

Referring to the issue of office memorandum by MGVK Bhanu, Additiol Chief Secretary, dividing the different medical colleges of the state in three zones, he said, this exercise is an attempt to discrimite against SMCH and also a conspiracy to cripple its functioning.

In consonce with the office memorandum, Guwahati, Barpeta and Tezpur medical colleges have been put in zone A, Dibrugarh and Jorhat medical colleges in zone B, Silchar and Diphu medical colleges in zone C. With this divide, the promotions and transfers have been confined within the respective zones. This means, as Biplob Kumar Goswami pointed out, no doctor of zone A can be transferred to zone B or zone C. This restrictive modality, he adds, might create avenues for the promotion of many junior doctors, but the people of different areas will be deprived of the services of competent doctors.

The general secretary also feels that the office memorandum will badly tell upon the overall interests of SMCH. It is well known that comparatively and in ratio to students and patients admitted in the premier medical institute, there is appreciable shortage of professors, assistant professors and registrars. Consequent upon the office memorandum, he further said no doctor from Guwahati, Barpeta, Tezpur, Jorhat and Dibrugarh medical colleges can get posted by promotion or transfer to SMCH. In the same way, from SMCH, no doctor can get transferred.

In near future, Goswami apprehended in order to safeguard the interests of Diphu Medical College, SMCH will have to sustain the resultant drawbacks as a follow up of the office memorandum. He recalled the medical college here has come to the present state through a long struggle. On the other hand, the newly established Diphu Medical College will depend upon SMCH for its growth and development. The compulsory transfer of doctors after completion of 7 year services in one place as mandated in the memorandum will see doctors of SMCH opting for Diphu Medical College.

 There is no possibility of any doctor from Diphu to come to Silchar. Goswami is worried that the problems of SMCH will multiply and push it into the past era of mis-governce due to acute shortage of doctors. The general secretary of GSS stress that the promotion and transfer should be within the medical college itself. By dividing the medical colleges in zones and restricting the transfer and posting, the state government and its health department have only been indulging in a sort of wishful thinking and planning that will ultimately affect the functioning SMCH.