Absentee docs in Bihar: ‘Tejashwi fed with incomplete info’

Dr Ranjeet Kumar, general secretary of the BHSA, said many in the list of absentee doctors, which Tejashwi Prasad Yadav referred to, had informed the government about their resignation, but the health department did not act. As a result, it did not have an exact count on such doctors.

The Bihar Health Services Association (BHSA) Wednesday joined the issue with the Indian Medical Association (IMA) over absentee doctors, saying health minister Tejashwi Yadav, also the state’s deputy chief minister, may have been provided with half-baked information, which recently prompted him to say that 705 government doctors, some absent for 12 years, were drawing salary from the government.

Bihar deputy CM and health minister Tejashwi Prasad Yadav had said that 705 government doctors, some absent for 12 years, were drawing salary from the government. (ANI)

“This (providing incomplete information to the health minister) is a serious issue,” said Dr Ranjeet Kumar, general secretary of the BHSA, a forum of government doctors from the level of additional primary health centre to the district hospital.

“It would be a contradiction if civil surgeons, deputy medical superintendents and medical officers in-charge at government facilities, who report about the absence of doctors, at the same time endorse salary payment, despite their absence from duty,” said Dr Kumar.

He said many in the list of absentee doctors, which Yadav referred to, had informed the government about their resignation, but the health department did not act. As a result, it did not have an exact count on such doctors.

Dr Kumar, though, added that the BHSA would never side with doctors absent from duty.

“There are around 160 doctors in the list of 705, some of who had joined as medical officers and are now doing their post-graduation or are part of the senior residency scheme, after obtaining permission. Others have resigned from government service, after being disillusioned, and are doing private practice. A few are actually working in the health secretariat, yet their name figures in the government’s absentee list,” said Dr Abbas Hasrat, a member of the BHSA from Nalanda district.

“Dr Bipin Kumar, whose name figures in the absentee list, had actually resigned and even contested the last assembly elections on an RJD ticket,” said Dr Hasrat.

The Bihar chapter of the Indian Medical Association (IMA) was critical of the health minister’s comments on absentee doctors, and demanded a white paper from the state government last Monday on Yadav’s statement.

The IMA has been critical of Yadav after he suspended Dr Binod Kumar Singh, medical superintendent of the Nalanda Medical College Hospital, on October 14, a day after he found lapses in management of dengue patients during a surprise inspection of the hospital. Dr Singh was not given an opportunity to explain his stand.

The IMA found support with the BHSA now joining the two issues.

“The state government ought to seriously introspect why doctors are not keen to serve the public sector,” said Dr Kumar.

The government should make doctors’ remuneration attractive, incentivise rural posting, ensure safety, improve health and education infrastructure and raise the standard of villages to a level so that a doctor feels comfortable staying there with his family, he added.