Medical college docs slam DME for extending duty timings

Hyderabad: A circular issued by the Director of Medical Education (DME) drew sharp criticism from doctors within minutes of its release here on Friday.

The DME announced an extension of evening duty timings of doctors by two hours. It cited the long waiting time for patients at government hospitals to undergo investigations and get treatment.

The circular stated that when health minister T. Harish Rao had conducted review meetings of institutions under DME, he noticed that many patients who were coming from far-off places needed to wait for one or two days even for completion of investigations.

Apart from this, it was felt that because of the increase in patient load in outpatient (OP) blocks there was a need to run outpatient services in the evenings in all general and maternity hospitals. Consequently, it stated that evening clinics in all such hospitals should function from 4 pm to 6 pm on all working days. Apart from this, the counters to issue outpatient slips should start by 7.30 am. Blood investigations ordered in the morning should be ready the same day and the treatment should be prescribed after reviewing the investigations in the evening clinics. Lab sample collection and report issue counter should be functional during OP timings, it said. All superintendents were directed to implement the instructions with immediate effect.

Meanwhile, the decision to extend timings of evening clinics has drawn criticism from Healthcare Reforms Doctors Association (HRDA). Association president Dr Mahesh Kumar said that the circular was in violation of GO 816, which states that the duty hours of teaching faculty were from 9 am to 4 pm.

He added that there were many other issues with medical colleges which needed to be resolved, such as shortage of specialists and faculty, unpaid allowances and stipends, lack of integrated laboratory information system to dispatch daily reports and lack of infrastructure for taking printouts.