Through a massive representation here on Monday, Tamil Nadu Government Doctors Association appealed to the State government to withdraw notification mandating one-year compulsory service eligibility for the doctors for transfer counselling.  

According to a notification issued by the Tamil Nadu government a few weeks ago and the oral instruction that followed, doctors who have completed one year of service in the previous station, would be considered eligible to apply for the upcoming transfer counselling.

Opposing the notification, a team of doctors headed by K. Senthil, State president. TNGDA handed over the petition to Government Rajaji Hospital Dean L. Arul Sundaresh Kumar. 

M. Ilamaran, Madurai district secretary, TNGDA, said, the government’s notification deviates from the 15-year practice of transfer and promotion.  

“Going by the notification, if a doctor who was promoted from assistant professor to associate professor during the recent promotion counselling held in January, the doctor could not apply for the upcoming transfer counselling,” he added. 

If the doctors wanted to get transferred to their preferred location, they could not do it and it would eventually be occupied by those getting elevated in the upcoming promotion counselling, Dr. Ilamaran noted.  

“Basically, it would mean denying rights of senior doctors and granting undue advantage to the junior doctors,” he contended. 

Moreover, the government, which claims to be following the National Medical Commission (NMC) in filling up the vacancies, would not get any benefit from the new norms, he stated 

The confusion this year, he said, was also due to the delay in conducting the promotion and transfer counselling in the previous year due to administrative slackness and the court procedures that ensued. 

“If the counselling had been conducted on time, then the gap between the two would have been enough for the doctors to show their service as per the norms” Dr. Ilamaran said.  

If the same norm is to be followed hereon, the doctors’ service and seniority in enjoying their due benefits would go futile, he added.