Obsolete rules hampering promotions of 950 doctors

Chennai: An archaic rule, nicknamed Robert Clive System by government doctors and followed by the directorate of medical education, is delaying the promotion of 450 professors and 500 assistant professors in state-run medical colleges across the state. The delay is set to affect the mandatory Aadhaar-based bio-attendance for medical colleges or force junior doctors to sign illegally as seniors in the system, they added.

The Madras high court last week allowed the state to conduct counselling for promotions to fill the vacant posts of professors and assistant professors in state-run medical colleges. However, the state, is not ready to begin the counselling yet.

As a first step, the directorate collects list of eligible candidates from each teaching medical institution. The list of candidates is whetted, names of “ineligible” candidates are removed and an “estimate of vacancies” is prepared. This is then sent to the personnel department of the state government for review. The department verifies them and gives the number of vacancies created by retirement, death, or promotions in each college and gives the directorate the number of candidates to be promoted.

The state then creates a panel of candidates in the 1:1.5 or 1:2 ratio. Candidates in the panel are called for counselling and promotions are given on the basis of seniority.

Government doctors say of the 45 specialities, the approval from the government has come for just around 10 specialities for the 2021 batch. The list must be prepared by the directorate for 2022 and 2023 batches, sources in the government doctors’ association said.

“In this day of AI technology, why should such a system be followed? The DME has the list of candidates who are due and eligible on its system. Why should the directorate send the list as hard copies instead of emails or other digital formats?” said TN Government doctors association president Dr K Senthil. “Instead of completing the process in less than a week, it takes three months for the state to complete counselling for promotions,” he said.

The state has the option to expedite the process. “It took less than a week for the state to identify and promote candidates for the new multispeciality hospital in Guindy. They have promoted the candidates and the list will be ratified by the government later. This should be a norm not an exception,” said Service Doctors and Post Graduate Association state secretary Dr A Ramalingam.

To tide over the vacancy crisis, the directorate transfers doctors temporarily or makes junior doctors pose as seniors to show all posts are full at the new colleges during NMC inspections, he said. The doctors will be directed to return to the colleges they are originally posted to once the inspection is over. In many cases, there are no hard copies of the transfer order, he said. “Now, with Aadhar-based biometric attendance being made mandatory, this is difficult,” he added.