Govt recalls RBA doctors for home postings

The government has recalled over 30 doctors appointed under reserved category RBA to their home town for serving people in respective far-flung areas of the Valley.
As per government order, the transfers and postings of at least 32 medical officers, appointed under the RBA category, have been made in pursuance of sub-rule (2) of Rule 3 of the Jammu and Kashmir Reservation Act 2004.
All the doctors figuring in the order, except those presently undergoing Post graduate courses, have been relieved from their present places of postings with immediate effect.
“The doctors who are presently undergoing PG courses in Government Medical College, Srinagar shall join their place of postings after completion of the course,” reads the order.
It said advance travel expenses admissible under rules will be sanctioned in favor of the transferred doctors.
The government order assumes significance as hospitals in far-flung areas are witnessing huge rush of patients due to partial functioning of tertiary care hospitals in Srinagar. All the hospitals, except SKIMS Soura, were affected by the floods last month.
Sources told Rising Kashmir that most of these doctors had managed plum postings in Srinagar and various town hospitals using money and even ‘bureaucratic push’.
“Some of them were working in the medical colleges with their posts illegally occupied at the directorate run hospitals,” they said.
According to sources, many doctors are unnecessarily sitting in medical colleges from past 20 years and they are not willing to move to rural areas. “The rules suggested that deputation period should not exceed 3 years. But these doctors keep their posting intact in medical colleges using every kind of influence”.
A senior official in the health department said more such transfers are expected in the near future as many district hospitals are facing dearth of doctors due to less rotation of doctors from Medical Colleges to the DHSK.
“Besides, hundreds of posts are vacant in different hospitals in the Valley. So, government is expected to issue more such orders before elections to fulfill the dearth,” he said.
Earlier, at least 250 doctors who had allegedly refused to join their duties in remote areas of the state had been warned to be ready for termination in case they fail to join duties.
“We are short of doctors in far flung areas. Government has decided to terminate services of doctors, who have refused to join their duties in remote areas of the state,” Minister for Health and Medical Taj Mohi-ud-Din had said.
The doctors are duty bound to serve in the villages and remote areas for the first seven years of their tenure.