Neeraj Rohmetra
Jammu, Mar 28: Going a step ahead of banning the private practice of all Heads of Departments (HoDs) in the Government run Medical and Dental Colleges of the State and their Associated Hospitals, the State Government is seriously mulling a proposal to ban private practice of all faculty members serving in various Health institutions of the State.
Reliable sources told EXCELSIOR that the Health Department has initiated the process for formulating a proposal for implementation of this ban and a formal proposal of the same is likely to be submitted before the Cabinet soon.
“Consultations are in progress on the subject between various officials of the Department and the final draft shall be submitted after weighing all pros and cons of various provisions of the draft”, sources asserted.
The State Government on January 17 had banned the private practice of all Heads of Departments (HoDs) in health institutions. The decision followed the first review meeting Minister for Medical Education, Youth Services & Sports Taj Mohi-ud-Din took after assuming the charge of the said Departments.
Sources stated that the decision has been taken to further improve patient care at these hospitals and make senior doctors available for their respective Departments all around, official sources said.
To avoid inconvenience to ailing community and compensate doctors in wake of recent ban on private practice of Head of Departments (HoDs) and the proposed ban on practice of other faculty members also in Government Medical Colleges and Associate Hospitals, the State Government is mulling to start evening clinics in both the capital cities.
These evening clinics will be operated from Chopra Nursing Home in Jammu and Kashmir Nursing Home in Srinagar where services of senior Government doctors will be hired, sources said.
A formal proposal in this regard has almost been prepared by the Medical Education Department and the same is being taken up before the State Cabinet for its final approval, sources added. In these evening clinics, sources further informed, Head of Departments, Unit Heads and other faculty members of Government Medical Colleges will be allowed private practice as per the roaster and against a ‘genuine’ fee to be fixed by the Government.
Some members of medical fraternity had expressed their reservations over the decision of setting up of evening clinics. “The Government is determined to go ahead with the decision but will give due considerations to reservations expressed by member of the faculty”, sources added.
Over the need to increase the age of superannuation, sources said, “there is yet no consensus over the subject and possibility of increasing the same in near future is totally ruled out. As per the present policy, it had only been decided to re-engage the faculty members on their retirement”.
“All the faculty members have been informed about this decision and re-engagement is being done as per the guidelines provided in SRO 384”, sources remarked.
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