Kolkata: The Health department of Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) has forwarded a proposal to Mayor Firhad Hakim seeking permission for termination/discontinuation of service of category-A medical officers who have not undertaken regular service during the lockdown. About 15 to 20 per cent of these medical officers have been irregular in attending to their duties, even though the department has made arrangements for their travel as public transport is unavailable during the lockdown. "Health department is earmarked as an essential department and negligence in duty at this crucial juncture is not permissible. We have already show-caused these erring medical officers and will take strong action if their reply is found to be unsatisfactory," said Deputy Mayor Atin Ghosh, who is in charge of the Health department of the KMC. The department in its letter has further proposed withholding salaries of such non-cooperating health staff for their respective period of absence and in selective cases increments may also be withheld along with discontinuation of services as the case may be. The category-A medical officers who are either in permanent service or are working as contractual have a strength of around 300 and over 15 per cent of them have persistently refused to serve the people during the ongoing lockdown as per sources in the KMC. "A section of such category-A Medical officers have kept themselves away from regular service during this period of great stress, thereby causing great difficulty to the Health department to maintain continuity of public health service, despite its sincere effort to maintain the same," the proposal letter to the Mayor read. The letter reiterates that the department has provided suitable hotel accommodation in terms of fooding and lodging, drop and pickups from residences, settlement of transport bills for reaching respective places of duty as and when required to these officers. "Most of the private doctors are refusing to attend patients during the lockdown period, so we need to have our Health units functional so that people seeking healthcare for common ailments are not inconvenienced," pointed out a senior official of the department.

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