HT Impact: AMC orders to release pending salaries of HBT docs at the earliest

Mumbai: A day after HT reported on irregularities in salary and incentive payments for the doctors working at Hinduhridaysamrat Balasaheb Thackeray (HBT) clinic, additional municipal commissioner Dr Sanjeev Kumar took a review meeting on Friday and ordered to clear the dues at the earliest

Mumbai: A day after HT reported on irregularities in salary and incentive payments for the doctors working at Hinduhridaysamrat Balasaheb Thackeray (HBT) clinic, additional municipal commissioner Dr Sanjeev Kumar took a review meeting on Friday and ordered to clear the dues at the earliest.

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For the last few months, doctors working in the HBT clinic in Mumbai have not received their salaries and incentives. An HBT clinic doctor’s salary is ₹70,000 per month and they are paid an incentive of ₹40 per patient if they see more than 50 patients a day. The salary of the HBT clinic staff is paid by the ward office the clinic falls under.

HBT is one of the most ambitious healthcare projects of BMC aimed at decongesting its tertiary care hospitals and strengthening primary healthcare.

As per the review, 259 staff- including nursing staff and doctors are yet to receive January-February salaries. “Out of the 259 staff, 84 staff are yet to get their January salary,” said a BMC health official. There are 433 staffers working for 107 clinics in Mumbai. Close to 120 doctors are working in these clinics.

“I have instructed the ward officers to pay the salaries at the earliest,” said Dr Kumar.

Welcoming the additional municipal commissioner’s intervention, an HBT clinic doctor who is yet to receive his January and February salary said, “HBT clinic is a nice initiative. We are overwhelmed by the number of patients we are seeing. However, we also need to see if this is financially viable for us. We hope in future we do not see any delay,” said the doctor.