Cancelling deputation of medical professionals, staying the order and then again likely to maintain the status quo, but with a face saving formula — the State Government appears to be coming full circle on the fate of hundreds of medical professionals on deputation working at hospitals and primary health centres across Jharkhand.
Committees formed by Chief Secretary Sajal Chakraverty at district level recommended retaining a majority of the medical staffs at their current locations and only a handful will bear the brunt of the order issued few days back. Interestingly, para-medical staff is likely to be hit the most by the decision taken by the government.
"We have recommended retaining about 80 per cent of the staff including doctors and para-medical employees working across the district," said Civil Surgeon of Ranchi, Gopal Shrivastava. The situation is more or less same as other district administrations have shown inclination for retaining more than half of the medical staff working on deputation.
The decision by State government to cancel deputation of medical professionals-doctors and para-medical staff-threatened the fragile medical system with its collapse appearing to be almost imminent. Fire fighting started moments after, apparently triggered by the state of medical services and committees formed by CS to look into the necessity of medical staff for the operation of the facilities.
The committees formed at the level of Directorate of Health was headed by Director-in-Chief Sumant Mishra and at district level was headed by Deputy Commissioner of the district with Deputy Development Commissioner and Civil Surgeon as other members. "We never intended to disturb anyone. The objective of the decision of cancelling deputation was to provide medical services to more people especially to those living in rural areas. Now, we are assessing everything on a need-based approach and we don't want unwanted people (working on deputation)," said the Director-in-Chief.
The decision of cancelling postings on deputation came in the backdrop of repeated resistance by doctors to work in rural areas, which the officials of health department claims to be weakening the State's fight to reduce gaps in medical services and bring down infant mortality and maternal mortality rates among other things.
Meanwhile, the CS' office on Sunday released a circular prohibiting transfer and postings in all departments unless and until warranted by the exigencies of the department. The letter shot at principal secretaries and secretaries of all departments has been issued following a verbal order given by Chief Minister Raghubar Das.