The medical education department has requested the state administration to implement a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for punitive action against the absconding bonded medical officers. The state government bears the major portion of the fees of the medical students who enter into a bond to serve in health department after completion of their studies. However in absence of any defined procedure of action most of these students jump the provision of bond with impunity and avoid joining the state health services. The medical education department has also suggested that as health director general is the appointing authority of these bonded medical officers, a person nominated by him should also be included in the bond so that punitive action in case of any violation in bond can be initiated. It has also called for a clear cut defining of role and responsibilities of student, principal, director medical education and DG health for effective implementation of the bond. Apart from the above mentioned suggestions the medical education department has suggested absorbing those bonded PG medical students into the medical colleges whose posts (specialisation) is not created in health department.
The medical education director Dr Ashutosh Sayana said that the department has created a list of the absconding bonded medical officers and action against them would be initiated.
It is learnt that bonded medical students taking advantage of many loopholes in the provisions of bonds and refrain from joining government hospitals after completion of their studies.
This tendency of the students has sabotaged the very purpose of the whole exercise. The Government had thought that by entering into a bond the doctors could be made available in remote and mountainous areas of the state.
The bonded medical students have to a pay an annual fees of only Rs 50000 as compared with Rs 4.0 lakh needed to be paid by a normal student. One of the major problems faced by the medical education department is that the bond is signed by student, his/ her parent and Principal of the respective college but after completion of the studies the appointment is given by the DG health. The experts are of the view that the state administration should device a fool proof mechanism so that the new doctors are prevented from jumping the bond.
Recently the state took a decision to raise the amount of bond to Rs two crore from Rs 30 lakh for MBBS students and Rs 2.5 Crore from Rs 15 lakh for the Post Graduate (PG) medical students.
The MBBS students of the Haldwani medical college are entering into a bond from the year 2004 while the students of the first batch of the Government medical college Srinagar singed the bond in the year 2008.