Tamil Nadu bans leave for Govt Doctors amid staff shortage
Chennai: In response to
the growing crisis of staff shortages in government hospitals, Dr. J
Rajamoorthi, Director of Medical and Rural Health Services (DMS), has issued a
directive instructing all district Joint Directors (JDs) of Health Services to withhold
approval of earned leave applications submitted by government doctors.
According to the order issued on Wednesday, JDs have been informed not to forward any leave requests to the DMS office until the issue of insufficient medical personnel is resolved. The directive is applicable to doctors in key administrative and senior clinical roles, including deputy directors, chief civil surgeons, and senior civil surgeons, reports the Daily.
“A large number of
doctors, across various wings, including health services, family welfare, TB
and Leprosy, are seeking earned leave for personal reasons. However, due to the
current shortage, granting leave will affect uninterrupted treatment to the public.
Until the situation improves, officers are instructed to reject such
applications at the district-level,” the circular stated.
One of the government
doctors told The New indian Express, the restriction has forced many medical
professionals to cancel previously planned foreign trips. The situation has
raised concerns among medical staff, particularly regarding work-life balance
and long-term morale. Dr. P Saminathan,
President of the Service Doctors and Post Graduates Association, criticized the
move, highlighting that the state government has failed to create a single new
doctor post in any of the 16 government headquarters hospitals in recent years.
“The patient load is increasing across the state, but there is no corresponding
effort to improve treatment quality or infrastructure. Refusing entitled leave
to doctors is inhumane,” he said.
Despite multiple
attempts, both Dr. Rajamoorthi and Health Secretary P. Senthilkumar remained
unavailable for comment. The development reflects the strain on Tamil Nadu’s
public healthcare system, already burdened by increasing patient loads and
limited human resources.
Medical
Dialogues had earlier reported that among the 36 Government medical colleges (GMCs) in the
State, altogether 34 colleges have a shortage of staff in up to 95% of the
departments, including the departments of general medicine, general surgery,
orthopaedics, and dermatology. Following this, the National Medical Commission
(NMC) slapped show cause notices on 34 Government medical colleges in Tamil
Nadu for deficiencies in faculty and services, including labs and surgeries.