BJP nationwide spokesperson Jaiveer Shergill mentioned that the Punjab authorities’s order to “rationalise” medical employees from SHCs would depart rural dispensaries with out sufficient employees. File picture
| Photo Credit: PTI

The Punjab authorities’s transfer to “rationalise” employees posted at Subsidiary Health Centres (SHCs) within the State, amid efforts to open 400 extra ‘Aam Aadmi Clinics’ on January 27, has come underneath extreme criticism from the medical fraternity and political events. Critics say the choice will pave the best way for shifting of medical doctors and different employees from SHCs, which cater to the agricultural plenty. 

Punjab’s Department of Health and Family Welfare has just lately despatched a letter to all of the Deputy Commissioners-cum-Chairmen of the District Health Societies and Civil Surgeons, wherein pointers have been laid for “rationalisation and administrative control of the Human Resource” posted at SHCs functioning underneath the Department of Rural Development and Panchayat.

Expressing concern over the transfer, Dr. Aslam Parvez, president of Punjab Rural Medical Services Association (RMSA), on Thursday informed The Hindu, “In 2006, a policy was brought in by the then government and under a ‘non-transferable’ clause, several doctors were appointed to SHCs to strengthen the peripheral rural health system. The purpose was to retain doctors in rural areas, but our fear is under the garb of rationalisation, doctors would now be transferred, which would weaken rural healthcare.”

Holding the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) authorities answerable for the “crumbling rural healthcare” within the State, the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) termed the transfer to open 400 extra ‘Aam Aadmi Clinics’ as an try and deflect consideration from its neglect of Punjab’s healthcare.

BJP nationwide spokesperson Jaiveer Shergill mentioned that the Punjab authorities’s order to “rationalise” medical employees from SHCs would depart rural dispensaries with out sufficient employees.

“This is actually a move to shift doctors from rural dispensaries to Aam Aadmi Clinics. This would leave rural dispensaries without doctors, and would be nothing short of shutting down these facilities that came into existence decades back. It would mean the end of health services in the rural areas, and create havoc,” he mentioned.

While demanding quick withdrawal of the order, Mr. Shergill mentioned that the federal government ought to be sure that all needed medicines and gear are offered to rural SHCs.