A move to redeploy doctors across government hospitals under the Directorate of Medical and Rural Health Services (DMS) could reduce the sanctioned posts of doctors in many government hospitals, particularly district headquarters and taluk hospitals, and hospitals with Comprehensive Emergency Obstetric and Newborn Care (CEmONC) centres, a section of doctors said.
The Service Doctors and Post Graduates Association (SDPGA) had expressed concerns over the implementation of Government Order (G.O.) 113, which was issued in March and reportedly kept in abeyance following their request.
The G.O. looks at rationalising 3,619 doctors posts at non-taluk, taluk and government headquarters hospitals to ensure the availability of specialist care in all secondary care institutions, citing the bunching of specialists in several institutions.
However, the association said that despite upgrading 16 taluk hospitals as district headquarters hospitals, there has been no increase in the posts of doctors. The government Health Department has adopted a redeployment model without sanctioning new posts. In fact, the number of sanctioned posts of doctors has been reduced in nearly 70% of GHs, it said.
The SDPGA said the G.O. followed a flawed methodology. Post sanctioning is based on the sanctioned bed strength and whether a hospital was designated as a CEmONC centre, while the actual workload of GHs was not considered. Moreover, medico-legal and clinical workload were not considered. A 24-hour casualty duty doctor has to manage medicolegal cases, including Accident Register entries, and post-mortems, while also providing emergency and non-emergency outpatient services round-the-clock, it said.
The patient load has multiplied manifold in GHs since 2000, with no proportionate increase in the sanctioned posts of doctors, staff nurses, and healthcare workers, it added.
Many hospitals with sanctioned posts for surgeons, orthopaedicians, and obstetrician-gynaecologists have no sanctioned posts for anaesthetists. How can surgeries be conducted in such GHs, it asked.
In June 2026, when SDPGA met the Health Minister, he had promised that the deficits in the G.O. would be looked into and posts would be created based on patient census and specialty services such as dialysis and surgeries. In September 2026, the DMS was pushing for its implementation, the association said.
The SDPGA requested the Chief Minister and Health Minister to review G.O. 113 and rectify the shortfalls before implementation, and postpone the transfer and promotion counselling for Chief Civil Surgeons and Senior Civil Surgeons until then.
Published – October 02, 2026 12:45 am IST
