Senior doctors in the government health care sector in the State are of the opinion that the retirement age of all doctors should be increased to 65 years.
General secretary of the Andhra Pradesh Government Doctors’ Association Dr. Pidakala Sam Sundar told The Hindu here on Monday that the Union government had issued a G.O. to enhance the retirement age of all doctors serving in the government sector to 65. Some States had already implemented it, but A.P. is still to decide on it, he said.
According to him, the retirement age in private medical colleges was 70.
The earlier TDP-led government had increased the retirement age of specialist doctors to 63, but maintained the 60 years limit for MBBS doctors. “We want the retirement age to be uniform for all doctors and enhanced to 65 years,” he said.
He said in the next two years, a large number of specialist and MBBS doctors were set to retire from government hospitals. If the age limit was not increased and young doctors were not recruited, then the government health sector would be impacted due to shortage of experienced doctors, he said.
On the other hand if the service age was increased, the newly recruited doctors would get an opportunity to train under senior hands. The strength of senior doctors had already gone down in a few departments and people were suffering, said Dr. Sam Sundar.
Other members of the association said the State government had decided to open 16 new medical colleges with teaching hospitals, so the need to enhance the retirement age was more now.
“We urge the Chief Minister to look into the issue and increase the age limit,” he said.
