Bokaro: Junior doc given hospital charge, seniors protest

DHANBAD: Handing over responsibility to a contractual junior doctor has snowballed into administrative controversy at Chas divisional hospital in Bokaro district after senior medical officers protested against the move.

As per the state government’s guidelines, charge of office at a hospital can be only be given to the senior most medical officer, the protesting doctors said on Wednesday.

As per available information, deputy superintendent of Chas divisional hospital Dr Mahesh Prasad, before going on leave, handed over the charge to a junior contractual doctor rather than regular and senior medical officers at the centre.

Protesting the move, senior medical officers of the divisional hospital said in presence of regular doctors, contractual doctor cannot be given the charge.

Following this, Bokaro civil surgeon (CS) Dr AK Pathak ordered probe in the matter. “It is wrong to hand over the charge to a junior doctor. Therefore, inquiry has been ordered in this regard,” he said.

Currently, there were eight doctors posted at Chas divisional hospital , of which four are senior to Dr Saurabh Kumar, to whom Dr Prasad handed over the responsibility of the hospital.

When contacted, Dr Prasad said Dr Vikash Kumar, a medical officer and second in seniority after him, was not given the responsibility as he is facing charges, while third in seniority Dr Ravi Shekhar was already in- charge of Covid centre. “Keeping these factors in mind, I gave charge to Dr Saurabh,” he said.