Centre to review vacation rules for govt medical college doctors: Report
The summer and winter vacations at government medical colleges are under scrutiny, with questions emerging on how doctors' absence is affecting the patient care in the hospitals during their vacations. The Centre is now examining whether the existing arrangements allow the medical professional and doctors to take leaves without disrupting the classes at medical colleges and the patient care at the hospitals.
The Union health ministry has sought detailed vacation and duty records from three government medical institutions in Delhi as an expert committee reviews the leave arrangements for Central Health Service (CHS) teaching doctors.
According to a special report by The Times of India (TOI), the committee was constituted to examine summer and winter vacations, along with academic and on-duty leave provisions. It held its first meeting on August 31.
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What will the centre review?
On September 28, the ministry reminded that the requested information had not yet been received. On October 28, RML Hospital had asked the heads of clinical departments to submit verified details within two days, TOI reported.
The information sought is regarding faculty strength, duration and actual dates of summer and winter vacations, the number of doctors allowed to be on leave at the same time and deployment of non-teaching doctors and resident doctors during these periods.
The committee also will examine the adequacy of the current 50% faculty roster to provide uninterrupted patient services. Institutions have been asked to provide monthly numbers for outpatient attendance, admissions, intensive care unit occupancy and surgeries for 2024-25 and 2025-26.
The review will consider the potential effect of vacations on undergraduate and postgraduate teaching, examinations, research and academic administration.
TOI’s report had also mentioned allegations that some doctors club regular vacation with academic leave and child care leave (CCL) and possibly extend their absence period. It involved claims one doctor took almost 100 times of academic leave over a decade, including trips overseas. The claims made in the above have not been independently verified from the official documents cited and are subject to confirmation and responses from the relevant parties.