CUTTACK/SAMBALPUR: The junior doctors, resident doctors, house surgeons and the students union of SCB Medical College and Hospital and VIMSAR have strongly opposed the State government’s move to allow doctors from outside Odisha to join the medical service here. Students and doctors of VIMSAR on Thursday launched a signature campaign against the move at Burla.
The government had recently amended the Odisha Medical and Health Services (OMHS) Rules (Method of Recruitment and Condition of Service)- 2020, allowing doctors from outside Odisha to join the Odisha Public Service Commission (OPSC) sanctioned posts. However, the decision has left the doctors and students of both the MCHs worried.
Addressing mediapersons, officer bearers of the doctor and student associations of SCB MCH referred to the recent advertisement of OPSC for filling up 2,452 vacant posts of assistant surgeon. They said at present, over 600 doctors are working on ad hoc and contractual basis across the 30 districts of the State. Around 1,300 students would complete their housemanship from various hospitals within and outside the State, enabling them to join the pool of working doctors.
This adds to a total of over 1,900 doctors from this year alone, eligible for recruitment. “This number of working doctors will keep on increasing, given the fact that new government hospitals have been opened across the State”, they said. Also, of the 2,452, only 633 posts are available for recruitment in the unreserved category whereas the number of unreserved candidates applying for the same is significantly higher and keeps on increasing with every passing year.
The reason why the OPSC sanctioned posts are remaining vacant is because the posts in the reserved categories are not getting filled. If this continues, then in the near future there might not be any vacancies in the unreserved category. By allowing doctors from outside the State to join the OPSC sanctioned posts, there will be more competition for a lesser number of posts in the unreserved category.
“Rather than allowing doctors from outside of Odisha to preferentially join the reserved posts; it would be better if the doctors of our State from unreserved category, be allowed to join the unfilled vacant posts in reserved category,” said SCB Junior Doctors Association president Dr Rama Chandra Sahoo.
Similarly, president of Junior Doctor Association of VIMSAR Sayed Iqbal Hussain said because of the amendment, the students who are studying here are now in apprehension that they will not get jobs in Odisha after graduating from the medical colleges in the State. Currently, 1,750 MBBS students are graduating every year which will increase to 2,250 when new medical colleges are opened in Sundargarh, Puri, Talcher and Kandhamal.