To prepare for the probable third wave of COVID-19, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has chalked up a plan to hire retired doctors for three years.
The plan was drawn up by Additional Municipal Commissioner Suresh Kakani and has been approved by BMC Commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal, as per an Indian Express report.
Kakani said that BMC has formed a committee under Deputy Commissioner (Public Health) Devidas Kshirsagar with deans of all medical colleges as members. "They will select retired professors or deans, who will work under the dean after their appointment," he said.
Under the new plan, doctors who worked in BMC-run medical colleges before retirement can now be reappointed till they reach 65 years of age.
"They will be appointed on a three-year contract. They would get a salary, but not pension benefits,” Kakani said.
Meanwhile, Chahal said that doctors appointed after their retirement would not have any administrative rights. However, no doctor will be deprived of promotion.
"We don't want talent to get wasted. I have seen doctors in private hospitals working till the age of 70 years and are still very fit. So, why can’t our doctors work after retirement," Chahal told the newspaper.
At present, doctors and professors in government medical colleges can work till 64 years of age. Those in BMC-run colleges can work till 62 years of age.
Meanwhile, Mumbai registered a marginal drop in new COVID-19 cases and fatalities as compared to June 20, when the case tally stood at 692 and the deaths at 25.
Mumbai logged 661 new coronavirus infections and 21 fresh fatalities on July 1, while 489 patients recovered from the infection, the city civic body said.
With the addition of 661 new infections, the tally of COVID-19 cases jumped to 7,22,879, while the death toll increased to 15,472 after 21 more patients succumbed to the infection, according to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation's (BMC) updated data.
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