The Bihar government’s decision to appoint faculties in super specialty departments of its medical college hospitals through lateral entry on the basis of an open advertisement will have to stand legal scrutiny, as a section of government doctors, not promoted for over a decade, have decided to challenge the advertisement in court, said the aggrieved doctors.
The doctors, who have been stagnating as assistant professors since their joining in 2012 and 2019, contend that any new lateral entry at senior positions, like associate professor and professor, will affect their career progression.
The Bihar Public Service Commission (BPSC) on January 6 advertised 25 positions of professor and 36 of associate professor.
There are around 12 government doctors in neurosurgery, five in neurology, four in cardiology, two in nephrology and one in cardio-thoracic vascular surgery who have not been promoted for long, and are likely to be affected by the recent advertisement.
In another case, a doctor at the cardiology department of the PMCH, who became an associate professor in 2012, has not been promoted as professor for the last 10 years.
The advertisement will directly affect around 25 doctors, holding superspecialty degrees, in six government-run medical college hospitals, including the Patna Medical College Hospital (PMCH), Nalanda Medical College Hospital (both in Patna), Darbhanga Medical College Hospital (Darbhanga), Sri Krishna Medical College Hospital (Muzaffarpur), Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College Hospital (Bhagalpur), and the Anugrah Narayan Magadh Medical College (Gaya).
Doctors in superspecialty departments generally hold three years of post-masters doctorate of medicine (DM) or Master of Chirurgiae (M.Ch) degree, considered the highest master’s degree in surgical science.
“The National Medical Commission (NMC) prescribes a time period of two years for promotion from assistant professor to associate professor and three years from associate professor to professor in case of superspecialist doctors (those having DM or M.Ch degree) in superspecialty departments. It has been 10 years and many of us have still not been promoted once,” said an aggrieved doctor requesting anonymity.
“If someone junior in age, batch and experience were to join as professor or associate professor through lateral entry on this advertisement, it will not only be demotivating for us, but also block our career progression in departments having only one post of professor, as the new entrant will superannuate after us,” he added.
“As per Bihar government rules, appointment through lateral entry should only be done when no eligible candidate is available within the service cadre. However, despite having the best of candidates within the cadre, the state health department has allowed them to stagnate by deciding not to promote them, and instead going for an open advertisement, allowing lateral entry. We will challenge it in court,” another aggrieved doctor said.
The state health department has held back promotion of doctors on the plea that it has challenged a Patna high court order, negating reservation in promotion. The matter is pending in the Supreme Court.
The doctors, however, said the state health department was being harsh on them, as there was no reservation even in recruitment of doctors in superspecialty departments.
“We are waiting for the decision of the apex court before we decide on the promotion of doctors. We have advertised the posts to fill existing vacancies,” said a state health official who requested anonymity.
Bihar faces around 50% shortage of doctors in public health system.
