Key posts at govt. medical institutions across T.N. vacant or held by personnel given additional-charge, say doctors

Several key positions in government medical college hospitals across Tamil Nadu are vacant or are being managed by personnel given additional-charge arrangements. This, according to government doctors, is impeding administrative functioning and affecting timely decision-making relating to patient care.

Inquiries with government doctors in many institutions showed that the vacant posts or those held as additional charges included directors of institutes of internal medicine, orthopaedics, general surgery, and cardiothoracic surgery at the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital (RGGGH), surgical gastroenterology at the Government Stanley Medical College Hospital (SMCH), and paediatrics at the Government Rajaji Hospital, Madurai, and deans of medical college hospitals in Tirunelveli, Coimbatore ESI, and Tiruvannamalai. The post of director of Institute of the Child Health and Hospital for Children, Egmore, has been held on an additional charge basis for almost a year.