Safdarjung Hospital violates Ministry order in recruitment

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New Delhi: In a violation of a Health Ministry order, the Safdarjung Hospital has recruited over 100 senior residents directly through interview and not written examination as stipulated. The Ministry, in a letter dated September 8, directed the hospital administration to select new senior residents through a written examination. “I am directed to say that Safdarjung Hospital is going to select senior residents in the hospitals through interview,” said the letter to Safdarjung Hospital’s Medical Superintendent A.K. Rai. “For this post, a large number of candidates will appear for interview. The hospital should follow the method of written examination for selection of senior residents.” Written examination is in line with the practice being followed in the selection of senior residents in Safdarjung Hospital as well as other government hospitals in the past, it said. According to letter, a copy of which is with IANS, the Ministry’s order was also approved by the Director General of Health Services. The Federation of Resident Doctors Association (FORDA) has said that despite getting the Ministry order well on time, the hospital administration ignored it and directly recruited senior residents through an interview on September 11. Rai, however, said that the hospital had already made the arrangements before they received the letter on September 9 and it was difficult to arrange a written examination at that stage. “We received the letter on September 9 though its dated September 8. Also, it was pre-decided to have the interviews only. Also, there was a protest by the Resident Doctor’s Association. I spoke to the Ministry and they gave me the permission,” Rai told IANS. Earlier, Rai had said that FORDA should come up with proof if it felt there was corruption in the recruitment process. FORDA had said that while it was expecting a written examination followed by an interview, the administration directly conducted interviews, violating the mandatory norm of written examination. The association said that while the recruitment have been done for over 100 vacant seats, of them 14 were only for the orthopaedic department. It also said that the Safdarjung administration has also been charged with violating the 40-year age limit, set by the Ministry for recruitment of senior residents, reduced to 33 years by the hospital. “We just want the government to set up an inquiry into the matter. There is a huge corruption going on in the recruitment of senior resident doctors and assistant professors,” FORDA President Vivek Chouksey told IANS. The FORDA, which represents pan India resident doctors has also approached Health Minister J.P. Nadda to look into the matter.