The members of RIMS’ governing body on Tuesday approved implementation of seventh pay commission for resident doctors during their board meeting in Ranchi, RIMS officials said. This development will now ensure monthly payment to RIMS doctors and interns at par with their counterparts from All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS).
“The board has approved implementation of seventh pay commission for doctors. Other decisions related to infrastructure and appointments of staff were also taken,” RIMS Director Dr. DK Singh said.
The meeting was attended by Health Minister Ramchandra Chandravanshi, Singh and other board members at the RIMS campus on Tuesday afternoon.
An agenda of giving rotational shifts to heads of various departments, however, was not approved, Singh said.
Head of various departments in Ranchi University currently serve rotational shifts. However, the RIMS board will have to further delve into the idea before asking HODs in Jharkhand’s premiere hospital to do the same, Singh added.
“Out of a total of 28 agendas, almost all the agendas were approved,” said Dr. Vivek Kashyap, Medical Superintendent, RIMS.
Besides the implementation of seventh pay commission, the board also approved installation of CCTV cameras in the hospital and appointment of assistant nurses for various departments.
Doctors at the institute have been up in arms against the Government’s alleged apathy towards their demand of seventh pay commission. On January 22, around 600 doctors of the hospital worked wearing black badges in protest of the delay in implementation of seventh pay commission.
The doctors were planning a pen-down strike this week to further pressurize the board for implementing seventh pay commission, members of the Junior Doctors’ Association said.
At present, resident doctors in RIMS get a monthly salary of around Rs 57,000 as per the sixth pay commission. The implementation of the seventh pay commission will increase their monthly salary by Rs 12,000, a doctor said.
Implementation of seventh pay commission was also one of the agendas in the 45th governing body meeting of RIMS on July 12, 2018. However, it was not approved then, which caused a major uproar by doctors.
RIMS is the largest State-run hospital in Jharkhand, and caters to the medical needs of rural and urban residents from across Jharkhand. On an average, the hospital treats at least 1500 patients every day.