Violation of transfer policy:Several doctors in valley hospitals not transferred since decades

Srinagar, Sep 11: Throwing norms to winds, doctors who have remained posted for years together in many parts of the valley have never been transferred from one place to other, because of some interests or personal affairs.

The transfer policy of the Health department clearly states that a doctor should have a minimum tenure of two years and a maximum of three years at a certain place.

However, in many parts of the valley including South and north Kashmir sources say, many doctors have been overstaying for over ten years now.
Sources said that a general surgeon, an ENT specialist and a dermatologist are among the doctors who refuse to leave the ‘choicest posting’.
Sources told that a dermatologist in south Kashmir is posted there from last more than 20 years and is also running a clinic at the same place.
“What they do is they get themselves transferred to another place for a few months and then get either an attachment or a transfer order back to the district hospital,” sources told .
“Obviously they do it in connivance of some higher ups in the department,” a highly placed official said.
“They are mostly local doctors and by staying closer to home and at a busy medical facility they increase footfall at their private clinics,” sources said adding, “some of them have even set up private hospitals and lure patients to these hospitals for surgeries.”
The list of doctors in the possession of KNS clearly shows that many doctors have secured their postings decades together.
The transfer of the doctors’ takes place from the directorate while the orders for transfer of consultants come from the secretariat. The doctors, if transferred, secure the revocation orders within no time, as per an insider in the department.
As per the government policy the minimum tenure of a doctor on a post shall be two years to a maximum of three years, but there are doctors who are constantly posted at one place for decades and the policy has been trashed literally, says a doctor wishing anonymity.
“Every year, four to five hundred doctors complete their degrees and then after they do specialization in various fields as general practice, gyanecology, dermatology, pediatric medicine, orthopedics, or many others, but gets posted hardly in rural areas due to political influence,” said sources.
Sources further said that there is a strong lobbyism of doctors in the state who have political backing due to which they are not being transferred from the hospitals from past many years. As such the doctors are allowed to go for private practices in nearby of their residential quarters.
“It is also true that there are various hospitals where there is not satisfactory strength of the doctors. In the various states of India there is a rule which is being considered as mandatory for a doctor to remain posted at a hospital for only two years, and same thing should have been happened in Jammu and Kashmir, but here it is altogether vice versa,” said sources.
Sources while quoting the doctors appealed Governor to make a strategy with regard to transfer of doctors in the state so that doctor-patient relations can be making more effective.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Kashmir Monitor staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)