TENKASI: All doctors attached to government hospitals in the district have been instructed to reside within an 8 km radius from the respective hospital and to be available at the facility for the entirety of their duty time.
Joint Director (JD) of Health Services, Tenkasi, Selvaraj recently issued a circular detailing these instructions to the Chief Medical Officers (CMOs) of all government hospitals (GHs). The strict instructions come amidst allegations from various quarters that government doctors were engaged in private practice during duty hours.
The circular further read, "The outpatient (OP) time is from 7.30 am to 1.30 pm and all doctors and nurses should report at the hospital by 7.30 am. The ward rounds should be carried out between 11 am and 1 pm. Evening OP should be conducted from 3 pm to 5 pm, and all departments' OP services should be available daily."
Doctors should take a week off only on Saturday or Sunday, and no doctor or nurse should combine their post duty off and week off, failing which their one day's pay will be cut, were among the other instructions.
When contacted by The New Indian Express, Shengottai GH CMO Rajesh Kanna said the JD had mostly pointed out existing rules. "I have forwarded his circular to all doctors and other staff working in my hospital," he said.
Another CMO, who insisted on anonymity, wondered whether the doctors, who reside in distant towns, would relocate within an 8 km radius of their working station. "Many of the GH doctors are residing in towns like Tirunelveli and Ambasamudram, where they either own a house or do private practice," he added.
A couple of months ago, a Tenkasi-based private hospital published its daily-duty chart on Facebook including names of the government surgeons and specialists working at Government District Headquarters Hospital (GHQH), Tenkasi, Shengottai GH and Tirunelveli Medical College Hospital.
Further, some government doctors reportedly took part in medical camps that were organised to advertise private hospitals. Recently, the patients at Government District Headquarters Hospital alleged that the doctors were leaving the hospital much before their duty time ended after handing over their duty to the interns.