Govt may not bow down to docs' demand for 20% cap on transfers

Hyderabad: Even as the government doctors are demanding a capping of 20 per cent on transfers, the health department is unlikely to accept their demand and would go ahead with the transfer of the employees working at the same place for more than ten years.

The doctors under the banner of Telangana Government Doctors Association had a round table meeting earlier, demanding the State government to limit the transfer to only 20 per cent of the doctors. However, the government seems to be not keen to have the capping and wants to go ahead with its plans to transfer all the professors, teaching doctors, nurses and others and it does not want to give relaxation to any of the staff members. Sources said that the health department would be following the spouse cases being followed in the education department. There is a rule in the education department that teachers with spouses would be transferred once in eight years.

The government doctors however argued that during 2018, the then government issued a GO imposing a capping of 40 per cent on the transfers keeping in view the problems the health sector could face. The doctors said that the present chief secretary Shanti Kumari who was the health secretary then opined that 40 per cent capping was not good as it would affect the functioning and services will be disturbed and limited the capping to just 20 per cent only. “The CS knows how difficult it will be if 40 per cent staff is transferred. She knows the issues hence we request the Chief Minister to have a capping of 20 per cent,” said Bhupender Rathod, the president of Gandhi unit of the Association.

The teaching doctors are up in arms over the non-transfer of doctors who are sticking to Hyderabad and want the doctors working in peripheral areas to be given priority in the transfers. The doctors said that the previous government had brought a wicked GO 48 which gave exemption to the doctors working in Gandhi, Osmania, KMC and Nizamabad Medical College.

Meanwhile, in a statement issued here, the Telangana Teaching Government Doctors Association (TTGDA) said that skill discrimination based on region was not correct. Every setup has both pros and cons and continuous movement of faculty on either way was important to get the best exposure. The crux of the problem is the lack of genuine transfers for 12 years.

“We demand general transfers this year to benefit all the eligible people so that all faculty in the periphery will get faith in the system, which won't affect future promotions and recruitments in peripheral colleges. Regular transfers are the need of the hour,” said TTGDA Secretary General Dr Kiran Madhala.