TN's primary health doctors cry foul over longer work hours

The Tamil Nadu government’s move to increase the working hours at Primary Health Centres (PHCs) has not gone down well with the doctors. The move will hinder the implementation of both state and Central schemes, they say.

“It’s not that the doctors are not working beyond their working hours. Even when the work timing was 9 am to 4 pm, doctors would leave only after 5 pm, as they would need to attend to patients and have meetings with the higher-ups,” said Dr N Ravishankar, general secretary of the Tamil Nadu Government Doctors’ Association.

Ravishankar, medical officer at Coimbatore Medical College, claimed the order is in violation of ‘working hours norms’. He also termed it an arbitrary decision taken without consulting doctors.

Impact on schedules

“Earlier, the working hours were 8 am to 4 pm. In 2009, during M Karunanidhi’s regime, a committee was formed to scrutinise the working hours, and it was then changed to 9 am and 4 pm, which would be 40 hours a week,” Ravishankar said.

Some doctors say the new move will definitely affect their work schedule.

“We are responsible for the implementation of as many as 30 state and Central government schemes in Tamil Nadu. Most schemes are focussed on rural areas, and we are implementing them successfully. This itself is time-consuming, and it is not possible for doctors to work passionately if the timings are increased further,” said a doctor at a PHC in Coimbatore.

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A woman doctor working at a PHC in Kodanad in Nilgiris district said she has to start her commute to the hospital as early as 6 am to reach it by 8 am. “In Kodanad, the day starts only after 7 am; it’s not easy to reach the town that early. There would be animal movements and bus service is only available at a certain time. If I travel by bus, either it would be too early to reach there or it would be too late,” she rued. 

On-call duty order

The doctors are also opposed to the new call-on duty order, as most of them do not reside close to the PHCs.

“The call-on duty order is unnecessary as we have government hospitals working 24×7 to treat the patients and we have ‘108’ ambulance services to rush the patients to such hospitals in case of emergency. The call-on duty would push the doctors at the PHCs to work round the clock, which is practically not possible. Eventually, it will interrupt the implementation of government schemes including vaccination,” said Professor Dr Senthil at the Government Rajaji Hospital, who is also the president of the Tamil Nadu Government Doctors Association.

The doctors have demanded that the on-call duty and increased working hours order for doctors at PHCs be withdrawn.

A senior health official at the Public Health Department said the order is being reconsidered, and a decision may be taken soon.