Date:15/05/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/05/15/stories/2006051519420400.htm

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Government-run hospitals have no permanent heads

Staff Reporter

Row over seniority is crux of the problem

20 posts of additional directors in the Directorate of Medical Education lying vacant
Administrative decisions getting delayed

Government yet to take a decision on the court verdict regarding seniority issue

HYDERABAD: The State's claims to be the medical capital of the country seems to be losing ground in more than one aspect.

The severe shortage of qualified doctors and regular blips in provision of proper healthcare in the Government sector notwithstanding, none of the Government teaching hospitals here have a proper administrative head.

None of the hospital superintendents or medical college principals in the State has permanent postings. For the last three years, doctors sitting in these positions have been just in-charges.

Services hit

The situation, wherein 20 posts of additional directors in the Directorate of Medical Education have been lying vacant for three years, is attributed to a running debate over seniority between regular Government doctors and those who joined Government service after 1983 following short service commission stints in the Indian Army.

The result of this problem, according to a senior Government official, has been that many administrative decisions, particularly in State-run hospitals, take a longer time than usual, in turn affecting service in these hospitals.

That promotions and permanent postings and related benefits remain distant for these doctors is another matter. Doctors, once promoted to the additional director post, will be sent to Government hospices as superintendents, or to medical colleges as principals. Ball in State's court

"Those who have joined Government service from the Army are claiming seniority by including their service in the Army. But actually, their tenure should be counted only from the point when they joined the State government service. The matter has been in the court for sometime, and it is learnt the court judgment has reached the Government, whose decision is awaited," the official said.

The entire organisational structure in Government hospitals and medical colleges, particularly those where the former Army doctors are working, could change once the Government takes a decision based on the court judgment, the official said, adding that once the top brass is fixed, the shortage crisis in the lower cadres would be slightly easier to solve.