Health staff wants govt to scrap VVP as balm to their demands

Hyderabad: The 13,000 odd staff of Vaidya Vidhana Parishad (VVP) want the Telangana government to emulate the Andhra Pradesh government to abolish the VVP and change the nomenclature of the Commissionerate as Director of Secondary Health Services (DSH).

The Vaidya Vidhana Parishad was established in 1987 by former chief minister of erstwhile Andhra Pradesh NT Rama Rao through the Andhra Pradesh Vaidya Vidhana Parishad Act, 1986. The idea behind this was to manage secondary level healthcare institutions in the State. They manage hospitals with 30 to 350 beds, including district hospitals, area hospitals, and community health centres. The hospitals used to apply user charges, which were later removed, and now it has become a government organisation.

According to the Telangana Vaidya Vidhana Parishad Employees Joint Action Committee leaders, though their appointments are through the public service commission and they too have the same service rules, their salaries are given in the form of grand in aid. Explaining the hardship faced by the staff of VVP, the JAC Chairman, Dr T Vinay said that they are deprived of the loan from the banks as they do not get pay slips.

They are not considered for the health cards like other healthcare staff working in other wings of the government. “We are recruited through the TSPSC; promotions are given by the government, but when it comes to salary, we are dependent on grants in aid,” said Dr Vinay Kumar.

Giving an example, he said that a MBBS candidate gets priority on his rank. First they get DME, Director of Health, and then Vaidya Vidhana Parishad. “We have a service quota of PG seats, which are given to DH and DME but not to VVP staff. While the retirement age was increased for the doctors, this rule does not apply for VVP staff,” said Dr Vinay.

The JAC leaders have been representing their issue to the government for a long time.

They said that it was about to be addressed during the previous government, but a change of guard in the State halted the procedure. They had recently met Health Minister C Damodar Raja Narsimha and requested him to pay salaries under 010-head of accounts Department of Treasury.

The JAC leaders said that the issue can be resolved within a short time as no additional money is required, and it was up to the officials to take the initiative as they had gotten assurance from the Health Minister.