CHENNAI: The Labour Welfare and Skill Development department has fixed the revised minimum basic wages for duty medical officers in private hospitals at Rs 14,000 to Rs 16,000 a month.
The wages were fixed based on factors such as the bed strength and the geographical location of the hospitals which are categorised as zones. A duty medical officer working in a hospital or nursing home where the bed strength is between 1 and 50, will have a minimum basic wage ranging between Rs 14,875 and Rs 16,057, depending on the location of the hospital. In hospitals with over 1,000 beds, a medical officer will receive a minimum basic wage of Rs 15,634 to Rs 16,876 depending on the location, as per the government order issued.
Dr GR Ravindranath, general secretary, Government Doctors Association for Social Equality (DASE), asked how it was fair to set the minimum wage for a doctor at Rs 16,876 even in a hospital with over 1,000 beds.
Dr S Karthick Prabhu, state secretary, Indian Medical Association (IMA), said the revised wages were not much higher than what they were getting earlier. “With DA it will come to around Rs 21,000,” he said.