The State Health department has set up a deadline of June 30 for the transferred doctors to join their new places of posting. The department has warned of strict disciplinary action against the doctors who fail to join by the above mentioned date.
The Director General (DG) medical health and family welfare department, Dr DS Rawat told The Pioneer that the transfer orders clearly mentioned that the doctors should be relieved within seven days and then in next seven days they should be joining their new place of posting. He said that strict action would be initiated against the doctors who fail to join work till June 30. This statement of the DG assumes significance in wake of relentless effort being made by many doctors to get their transfers cancelled.
The doctors who have been shifted from plain areas to the mountainous locations are especially active to get their orders cancelled. Many doctors have cited health problems for being unable to join new place of posting. On such requests the DG said, “Every doctor in the transfer list must join his or her place of posting. The issues like suffering from any disease would be settled later.’’
In the biggest reshuffle of doctors of State health services in the history of the state, 241 doctors were transferred by the state health department on June 15. In an attempt to strengthen facilities in the hospitals located in the mountainous regions the department sent 171 doctors from hospitals located in plain areas while 70 medical offices serving in mountainous locations from last many years were sent to hospitals located in plain areas.
In a departure from convention the department this time has released separate order for every transferred doctor instead of a consolidated list. These orders clearly state that the transferred doctors should join new place of posting within seven days. Further the order clearly mentions that salary of June month of transferred doctors would be disbursed from new place of posting and the head of the department is held accountable for any delay in relieving transferred doctors.