Ludhiana: Following two recent incidents of Punjab Health Minister Raj Bahadur reprimanding Vice Chancellor of Baba Farid University and SMO of Kharar Hospital, several doctors at Government Hospitals in Punjab have resigned over the “ill-treatment” meted out to them putting the Bhagwant Mann led government in a soup.
Punjab Health Minister Chetan Singh Jouramajra has come under fire from several quarters after he was seen forcing the Vice Chancellor of Baba Farid University of Health Sciences (BFUHS) to lie on a dirty mattress at a hospital on July 29. After the incident, VC Raj Bahadur said he had conveyed to the Punjab chief minister the "humiliation" he faced and requested that he be relieved from services as the work environment was not conducive.
SMO of Kharar Hospital and former CM Charanjit Singh Channi's sister-in-law Dr Maninder Kaur -- who too was reprimanded by the Health Minister and transferred to Dhanula in Barnala -- has applied for voluntary retirement. Representatives of the Indian Medical Association have claimed that more doctors will resign, “because the conditions that are developing in Punjab are not hidden from anyone”.
Also read: Punjab health minister under fire for forcing surgeon to lie down on dirty mattress
Punjab Civil Medical Service (PCMS) Head Dr Akhil Sareen said that the “way the doctors are being threatened, they are not ready to work in these conditions”. He said that people have high expectations from the government, “but there is a huge lack of infrastructure and budget”. He further said the resignation of the doctors had led to a shortage of specialists even as the shortage of medicines was also caused at some hospitals.
IMA Head Dr. Bimal Kanish said that in the last 4 months, about 40 doctors have resigned adding more resignations were in the pipeline. There is already a severe shortage of doctors at Punjab hospitals. The World Health Organization has recommended a 1/1000 doctor-to-patient ratio. Dr Sareen said that the last survey on the doctor-patient ratio was conducted in Punjab in 1991.
As on date, Dr. Sareen said that there is also a huge shortage of paramedical staff besides specialist doctors at the hospitals in the state. Aam Aadmi Party MLA from Jagraon Sarabjit Kaur claimed that one of the doctors had resigned “due to personal issues”. “I only know about him, I don't know why others are resigning,” Kaur said.
