E-Paper
‘Jittery’ top Mohali govt doctors want to hang up boots
Citing ‘personal reasons’, four senior govt doctors, including three SMOs from Mohali and Fatehgarh Sahib, write to govt for voluntary retirement
As many as four senior government doctors, including three senior medical officers (SMOs) of Mohali and Fatehgarh Sahib, have applied for voluntary retirement scheme (VRS), posing worries for the already staff-short health departments of the two districts.
Though all four have cited personal reasons for opting for VRS, sources said strong resentment was prevailing among the medical fraternity over the working style and rude behaviour of Punjab health minister Chetan Singh Jouramajra towards senior doctors.
The minister has been in the eye of a storm ever since he forced Baba Farid University of Health Sciences, Faridkot, vice-chancellor (V-C) Dr Raj Bahadur to lie on a dirty bed at a Faridkot hospital on July 29, which was followed by Dr Bahadur and several senior doctors across the state putting up their papers.
In Mohali, among the three SMOs choosing to retire early is Dr Maninder Kaur, the wife of former chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi’s younger brother.
A skin specialist, who has been serving as SMO, civil hospital, Kharar, Dr Kaur was recently transferred to Barnala after Jouramajra’s visit to the hospital, where he had taken her to task over a non-functional ceiling fan at a hospital ward.
Channi’s brother Dr Manohar Singh was posted as the Kharar civil hospital SMO, before he resigned in December last year to contest the Punjab assembly elections from Bassi Pathana.
Others who have opted for VRS include Dr Sukhwinder Singh Deol, an eye specialist, who was shifted from Community Health Centre, Bassi Pathana, to the Kharar civil hospital as SMO after Dr Kaur’s transfer.
The third SMO is Dr Naresh Chauhan, an eye surgeon, posted at the Khamano civil hospital in Fatehgarh Sahib. ENT specialist Dr Sandeep Singh, who is working at the Employee State Insurance (ESI) Hospital in Phase 7, has also chosen to retire.
When contacted about her decision, Dr Kaur she cited personal reasons and refused to comment further.
Dr Chauhan also cited personal reasons, while Dr Deol attributed health concerns behind his decision.
Dr Singh said he was also leaving due to personal reasons and it had nothing to do with the government.
Punjab Civil Medical Services Association (PCMSA) state president Dr Akhil Sarin said, “Since the health minister’s behaviour with Dr Bahadur, doctors are very disappointed and demoralised. In any case, government doctors are overburdened amid staff shortage, hospitals don’t have adequate infrastructure and expectations of people are very high.”
Dr Paramjit Singh Mann, president, Indian Medical Association, Punjab chapter, said, “There is a strong resentment among the medical fraternity against the working style of the health minister. Government doctors are already under tremendous pressure. I urge the chief minister to intervene and seek the health minister’s resignation.”
Mohali civil surgeon Dr Adarshpal Kaur said the department was already short of specialist doctors, but they were hopeful that the posts will be filled soon.
