Assam government has decided to initiate legal action to recover Rs 20 lakh each from as many as 244 post graduate medical doctors. The doctors had obtained post-graduate medical degree in 2014 and had a commitment for serving at least 10 years under the state government.

Chief minister of Assam Tarun Gogoi says,

“Since the general public visiting government health institutions have been deprived of the services of PG doctors in spite of huge amount of public money invested on them by the state government, the public money would not be allowed to go waste,”

The government is of the view that it bears additional cost when they train these post graduates. The post graduates have to return it through service or by shelling out Rs. 20 lakh each.

The compulsory rural or government service has got some support from certain group of civil society. They think that doctors are obliged to offer such services.

But the doctors are uniformly against it and they have raised many pertinent questions regarding such regulations.

Will any government answer these legitimate questions?

• Why is the government not investing enough in health infrastructure especially in rural areas?
• Even if doctor is ready to serve, why are there not enough resource allocation for optimum usage of their skills?
• What will a post graduate in a speciality do in a rural area without adequate infrastructure?
• Why is that only doctors are forced to serve in rural areas?
• If government is so much interested in improving healthcare, why the healthcare expenditure as part of GDP is coming down and is one of the least in the world ?

Also read, recently a bill from Karnataka that made rural service compulsory got the presidential nod. The penalty in that case ranged from 15-25 lakhs.

Government plans an exit exam on already overburdened doctors and IMA sends confusing signals about it.

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