The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has issued show-cause notices to about 100 doctors out of the 800-odd working at its five major hospitals for prolonged absence from duty, amid complaints that some doctors leave hospital premises during working hours to attend private clinics.
KEM dean Dr Harish Pathak is also among those who received a notice. Hospital deans have been asked to monitor attendance and ensure that doctors working under them remain available during duty hours. The action follows complaints that many doctors also practice in private clinics during their duty hours. “In fact, these doctors, who moonlight in private clinics, are much more diligent in punching in their attendance on time. Doctors’ absence can also increase the workload on junior residents and other medical staff.
The notices have been issued to 36 doctors at KEM Hospital, 30 at Sion Hospital, 24 at Nair Hospital, nine at Cooper Hospital, and one at Nair Dental Hospital, according to Dr Shailesh Mohite, director of medical education and major hospitals at the BMC. He added that the attendance system should also account for the long hours worked by resident doctors, which can stretch to 24-36 hours.
“The dean is as equal as any other medical personnel, and he has also been sent the notice like all others,” Mohite said. They mark their attendance and leave the premises,” said a resident doctor at a BMC hospital, requesting anonymity. “To deter them, when the BMC insisted that doctors mark their biometric attendance both while entering and leaving the hospital premises, such doctors still managed to find their way around,” added the resident doctor. The absence of doctors affects the functioning of government hospitals, which face heavy patient loads, drawing patients from across the Mumbai Metropolitan Region and rural parts of Maharashtra for specialised treatment, officials said. “Junior resident doctors often end up taking charge of the major administrative functioning and also major treatment like surgeries in the hospital,” said Dr Mayur Choudhari, president of the Cooper Hospital chapter of the Maharashtra Association of Resident Doctors (MARD).
“Some of our specialised services depend on a single expert. The departure of such a professional could seriously disrupt treatment, training and access to care for patients who have few affordable alternatives. If they leave, the entire department will collapse,” he added.
