SUBHASH MISHRA
Dhanbad, July 6: Chief Minister Hemant Soren, on Wednesday (July 5) felicitated more than 125 government and private doctors, medical college teachers (doctors) and lab technicians, at the IPH hall in Namkum, for their outstanding work in the health services. It has opened a can of worms in the state.
The medicos across the state especially in Ranchi, Dhanbad, Jamshedpur, Dumka, Hazaribagh, Palamu, Deoghar, Pakur and Ramgarh, have questioned the concerned civil surgeon’s criteria of selection under which particular doctors were selected and the contribution of others was overlooked for the felicitation.
As per the allegation of doctors, the civil surgeons (CS) and principals of medical colleges made a mess by adopting a pick-and-choose policy. They selected their ‘yes men’.
Additional Executive Director of Jharkhand State Arogya Society, Vidyanand Sharma Pankaj had on June 7 directed the CS of all 24 districts to send names of four doctors (two government and two private) who did extraordinary work in the Ayushman Bharat- Mukhya Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB-MMJAY), for felicitation on Doctors’ Day (July 1). The Additional Acting Director had also asked to make the selection based on the achievements of doctors and avoid names of tainted doctors.
On July 4, NRHM Director Alok Trivedi issued the list of selected doctors for felicitation on July 5. A senior doctor of Ranchi said that some doctors who were denied felicitation last year (2022) of course got their due this time, but at the same time, some undeserving doctors also got undue recognition.
“Some doctors who have nothing to do with AB-MMJAY were selected. Moreover, non-performing doctors got selected with the blessings of civil surgeons. Interestingly, tuberculosis officers who have nothing to do with AB-MMJAY had been felicitated,” said a senior doctor.
However, a senior officer of the health department said that all can’t be made happy. Selected doctors would be happy and those who missed would be angry from felicitation. It is a natural phenomenon, he added.
Jharkhand Health Service Association (JHSA) Secretary Dr Thakur Mritunjay Singh said that it is a silver lining step of the government to felicitate doctors. But he admitted that some civil surgeons and Principals of medical colleges made partiality in the selection of the medicos.
The JHSA secretary said that when the department had directed to send names of extraordinary performers, civil surgeons should have followed the criteria rather than sending names of his choice, without assessing their performance.
