Medical officers on contract without salaries for 4 months

Nagpur: The state government often blames doctors for not being willing to work in rural areas. But when they do, it does not pay them on time.
Medical officers appointed in Nagpur district on contract for 11 months in various primary health centres (PHCs) have not got their salaries for four months in most of PHCs after latest round of appointments in December 2018-January 2019. As a result, some have left the job and many are preparing to do so.
Doctors from various PHCs in Nagpur district told TOI they had not any salary since they joined. One of them who is married and has a child said she was planning to leave the job as she hadn’t been paid despite working 12 hours a day. She has to also look after her sick husband too. “What is the use of working if I can’t get money for treatment of my husband,” she asked.
Another doctor said there were no facilities for them to stay yet he was working all this time in the hope of salary.
“We were promised a mere of 40,000 per month. Later the finance minister raised this to 60,000. In reality, we have not got a single paisa since January. In my PHC, we have to work round the clock. So many of us plan to now seek jobs in cities with senior doctors so at least we can live a decent life after so many years of hard work. We cannot be blamed for not working in rural areas,” he said.
Dr Devendra Paturkar, district civil surgeon who heads the district appointment committee that also has the district health officer and the collector, told TOI the salaries were not released as the government had not released grants for them. “We have written to the authorities. It has been routed through Deputy Director Health Services (DDHS). Probably the funds will be released soon,” he said. The district health officer Dr Deepak Selokar too had a similar answer.
However, the joint director health services of state Dr Sanjay Patange and director health services Dr Archana Patil were not fully aware of the issue. Dr Patange said it was wrong on the part of appointment committee (DHO and CS) to not release salaries and not inform this to higher authorities if there was a problem. A high official in finance section of health department told TOI the grants were released well on time and it was the responsibility of DDHS to ensure the salaries were paid.
Dr Sanjay Jaiswal, Nagpur circle DDHS, said the grants were released to CS and DHO and if they had not paid the staff it was their responsibility. He admitted grants for salaries in this financial year had not come yet.