Delhi contract doctors face an uncertain future

Scores of contract doctors, working with Delhi government, face an uncertain future regarding continuation of their services, as the government is considering advertising for open recruitment of the vacancies on which they were appointed.

The 100 doctors, the only batch of contract medical officers and non-teaching specialists, have been working in Delhi government hospitals like Deen Dayal Upadhyay, BS Ambedkar Bhagwan Mahaveer, Sanjay Gandhi Memorial, etc and dispensaries for past eight to ten years.

According to a recent circular by the government, it has decided not to extend their contract after it expired in February this year, and instead has decided to initiate a recruitment process, for which they can sit, competing with hundreds of younger candidates and they will be allowed to retain their seats only if they manage to get selected.

“Our appointment on the contractual post was made through a credible open recruitment process based on written examination and interviews. Now the government wants us to reappear in a fresh recruitment process. The government does not consider that it is not possible to clear examinations again and again since applicant to vacancy ratio is 10:1 in these examinations,” said a contract doctor. “We have given prime years in these hospitals, missing many career opportunities in the process because successive governments have given false assurances of regularisation of our posts,” he said. Presently, the proposal for their regularisation through inclusion in the initial constitution of Delhi Health Service cadre is lying dormant in the Health department, while the UPSC has refused it twice. The doctors said that CM Arvind Kejriwal hadpromised them regularisation. The president of Indian Medical Association, Dr K.K. Aagarwal, has written to all Hhalth officials, health minister Satyendar Jain, the chief minister and the lieutenant-governor on the issue.