The staff of the Bhopal Memorial Hospital and Research Centre (BMHRC), including doctors, is facing problems ever since the hospital is being governed by the Department of Health Research (DHR).
Official sources said that the hospital that was earlier governed by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) was handed over to the DHR around a year ago. However, besides other few formalities, recruitment rules are yet to be formulated.
In want of the fresh recruitment guidelines, new recruitments are not being made in the hospital. Only a handful of the staff was recruited recently, that too under the guidelines of the ICMR, sources added. In want of the fresh recruitment guidelines from the DHR, the doctors and other staff are also not getting any promotions. The employees are utterly unhappy due to the delay in finalising Recruitment Rules and in this regard, they had planned a daylong strike few days ago, but at the eleventh hour, the decision was withdrawn after having assurances from secretary of the DHR.
President of the Doctors Association Dr lalit Kumar said, “It is disappointing for any employee to know that he would be in the same place, earning the same salary, without promotion or furtherance in the job. We all are looking forward to a clearly defined service and recruitment rules so that we can motivate ourselves in our day to day job.” The power transferred from ICMR is complete, but the Recruitment Rules are not yet finalised which has affected the morale of the staffs, he added.
On announcement of strike by doctors on January 18, 2016 a written assurance was given by Secretary of Department of Health Research (DHR) Dr Soumya Swaminathan that the issue will be taken care in a month. Though strike was pulled back at that time, doctors are willing to go on strike again, if promise is not delivered, added Dr lalit Kumar.