The one-day OPD boycott call given by the Government doctors on Monday over vigilance action on one of their colleagues has raised the relevance of payment of Non Practice Allowance (NPA) to these doctors. The Chief Medical Superintendent (CMS) of Kashipur hospital, Dr BC Joshi was arrested by vigilance team when he was treating a patient at his official residence.
As per the rules, the Government doctors are barred from doing private practice. The doctors of the State got outraged at this act and gave OPD boycott call to express their solidarity with Dr Joshi. The anger of the doctors was clearly visible in the meeting of Provincial Medical Health Services (PMHS) at Doon hospital on Monday.
Some of the doctors were of the opinion that they should ask the State Government to stop giving NPA to them so that they can practice freely. This idea however was booed down by majority of the doctors. In the meeting, a resolution was passed in which the PMHS demanded that the nomenclature of the NPA should be changed to special pay to clear confusion.
They cited favourable court rulings to justify their claims for both NPA and allowing private practice. The doctors were of the view that no one should object if they are treating patients in the time where they are at their homes. The NPA is paid to the Government doctors as an incentive so that they do not engage in private practice and thus do justice to the patients they are treating in the Government hospitals.
The NPA is 25 per cent of the basic salary of the doctors in the State. Interestingly, the NPA is paid to all the doctors including those manning the administrative posts in Uttarakhand. A medical expert was of the view that the State Government should give NPA to the doctors of non-clinical fields only and should stop its payment to the clinical ones.
In some States like Rajasthan, the Government has fixed the fees which the Government doctors should charge from the patients which depend on their seniority. The general perception among the common people too is that the State Government should stop NPA and save precious revenue as it is not in position to stop doctors from engaging in private practice.