BHUBANESWAR: As the grand plans of the State government to set up a full-fledged extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) unit at SCB Medical College and Hospital, Cuttack, for treatment of extremely critical COVID and general patients has gained momentum, a bizarre situation has come to the fore.
The government has posted a professor of Medicine against a vacancy in the department of Cardiothoracic and Vascular Surgery (CTVS), a specialised surgical discipline. The ECMO unit is set to be established in the CTVS department.
Sources said while one post of professor, two associate professors and assistant professors of the CTVS are lying vacant since 2015, professor in medicine Dr Jayanta Panda was posted against the vacant post of professor in the department last year.
Dr Panda, who though works as the head of department of General Medicine, draws his salary against the professor of CTVS by virtually blocking the post. While the CTVS department has been struggling without minimum faculty and surgeons, such an arrangement has raised eyebrows.
The CTVS department, which is already overburdened with at least 15 bypass surgeries a month, will be the nodal department of the ECMO unit. Since there is no one in the rank of associate professor since long, there is hardly any possibility that anyone will be promoted to the rank of professor in at least next five years.
Prof of Medicine posted against vacancy in Cardiothoracic Surgery department
"Not only the post of professor which has been vacant for the last six years, no appointment has been made against the posts of two associate professors. Of the three assistant professors’ posts, one is regular and another is contractual. The other one is vacant," sources said.
Hospital sources said that Dr Panda's case is not an isolated one but a usual process. “In fact, the posting orders are written very cleverly to run the show. In this case, Dr Panda is posted to SCB MCH as a professor. He is allowed to work as professor in the department of general medicine and draw salary from any vacant position in the MCH. Since there was a vacancy of his cadre in the CTVS department, he is drawing his salary from there,” said an official of the MCH.
DMET director Dr CBK Mohanty said there was nothing wrong in the posting of Dr Panda. "The government is trying hard to fill up the vacancies in the CTVS department. But there have been no applicants. The government has also allowed lateral entry in the post of professor but has got no response. Most of the cardio-vascular surgeons in the country are employed with corporate hospitals with fat salaries. No one interested in government hospitals," he said.