Private hospitals and private medical college hospitals had assured the government of increasing their bed capacity. On Tuesday, 88 private hospitals/medical college hospitals had uploaded details on the portal stopcorona.tn.gov.in.

PG doctors appointed

Service and non-service postgraduate doctors, who had completed their course in May, had been posted on COVID-19 duty at government hospitals, COVID-19 Care Centres and COVID-19 Health Centres in Chennai.

An official of the Health department said 1,002 service PGs and 570 non-service PGs from across the State were posted on COVID-19 duty. “All of them will be joining duty from today. We are posting additional manpower to all these facilities to ensure that there is no shortage of doctors,” he said.

While service PGs would get government salary, non-service PGs would be paid ₹75,000, he said. “This is part of the bond period. As of now, they will be on COVID-19 duty for three months, and an extension depends on the situation.” Their boarding and lodging in hotels and transportation had been arranged. The department had earlier decided to appoint 665 medical officers, 365 lab technicians and 1,230 multipurpose workers on an outsourcing basis for three months. Many of them did not take up the jobs due to low pay. The department has now increased the consolidated pay from ₹40,000 to ₹60,000 for medical officers, ₹10,000 to ₹15,000 for lab technicians and ₹6,000 to ₹12,000 for multipurpose workers.

“We wholeheartedly welcome these people to the service. Some of them have managed to come despite severe hurdles, and we appreciate it. They will truly augment our workforce here,” Health Secretary Beela Rajesh said.