Without creating new posts, the Health department has once again resorted to redeploying doctors. This time, nine posts of doctors from various government medical college hospitals, including Chengalpattu and Tiruchi, are being redeployed to the Kalaignar Centenary Super Speciality Hospital (KCSSH), Guindy to fulfil an announcement made by the Health Minister in the Assembly.
The Minister had announced that additional speciality departments of general medicine, general surgery, ENT, ophthalmology, dermatology, orthopaedic surgery and respiratory medicine would be established at KCSSH. In line with this, following a proposal from the Director of Medical Education and Research, the State government gave the nod to redeploy nine posts — four assistant professors and five senior residents — for the creation of six speciality departments at KCSSH. For orthopaedics, the services of three orthopaedic surgeons at the hospital’s emergency room would be utilised for general orthopaedic services on a rotation basis.
Issuing an order, the Health department redeployed posts of assistant professors and senior residents (three for general medicine, two for general surgery, one each for ENT, Ophthalmology, Dermatology and Respiratory Medicine) from Chengalpattu Medical College, Government Medical College, Omandurar Estate, Government Stanley Medical College (SMC), KAP Viswanathan Government Medical College, Tiruchi, Mohan Kumaramangalam Medical College, Salem and Government Kilpauk Medical College to KCSSH.
This is not the first time the department is redeploying doctors. Recently, 78 medical officers were redeployed from existing upgraded Primary Health Centres (PHC) to 50 new PHCs drawing sharp criticism from government doctors.
A senior doctor said that the department should not be redeploying doctors from districts such as Tiruchi and Chengalpattu that have only one government medical college to a place like Chennai that has so many government health facilities. “Would this not affect patient care services in Chengalpattu? Why are doctors moved from peripheral medical colleges to the city? In fact, diverting doctors from SMC is also unacceptable as it caters to a large population of north Chennai. Instead, the department should focus on creating new posts,” he said.
K. Senthil, president of Tamil Nadu Government Doctors Association, said that already, the State was facing a shortage of manpower in accordance with the patient load, a key factor essential to maintain quality of treatment but has been lacking for the past 20 years. “If the government is firm that there is a limit to recruiting manpower, they should not start new hospitals but try to equip the existing ones with adequate staff,” he said.
A. Ramalingam, secretary, Service Doctors and Post Graduates Association, said the Health department was identifying posts of doctors in government medical college hospitals that were in excess of the National Medical Commission’s prescribed minimum standards and redeploying them. “We have been demanding that new posts of doctors should be created as per patient strength and recommendations of the Indian Public Health Standards. Take the medicine department of SMC. Out of 18 sanctioned posts of doctors, we have 16 in place, and one of them has been redeployed now. We have already sought six extra posts for patient care as we need more hands for the intensive medical care unit,” he said.
Published – August 15, 2025 01:17 am IST
