Could there be corruption in appointments of Doctors in Delhi

While all of us do talk on corruption, poor medical facilities, expensive medical treatment etc., there is another area which possibly is being ignored is the appointment of medical fraternity to serve the Government Hospitals specially in Delhi. While the Government of Delhi seems to be working very hard for improving medical services in Delhi, it seems to be ignoring the possibility of corruption in the appointments of the Doctors in the Hospitals.

The present AAP-led Delhi government came to power, hinging primarily on their promise to end corruption, bring in transparency in government functioning and thus change the way of politics. “Hum Rajneeti badalne aaye hain” was one of the popular slogans of the time. Healthcare initiatives have so far included free medicines and tests, reigning in private sector by forcing them to reduce costs, and implementing a DAK scheme to ensure speedy surgeries in private hospitals at the cost of taxpayer. What surprises me, however, is that there is absolute silence when one talk about transparency in appointment of government doctors. There is rampant nepotism and corruption in these appointments and it is something that is very well-known within the medical community. There is feedback on the subject from the talks with medical fraternity. It is generally observed that while the Governments have all been talking about shortage of Doctors when we all do talk about poor medical facilities in Government Hospitals, there also seems to be number of Doctors appearing for interview as and when even a single vacancy is notified. Both seems to be contradictory either there is a shortage of Doctors or there is a shortage in the job vacancies. Number of messages on social media remains inattentive.
Take for example, the senior resident doctors (SRs), who are the driving force of most of the government hospitals in Delhi. If one were to analyse all the senior resident appointments made in the hospitals, one would easily feel the corruption at play. Merit is, of course, not given any importance. You could have graduated and post-graduated from a top government college of the country, have a huge list of publications, awards, clinical skills and knowledge and yet fail to be selected. Interviews are advertised and held just for the sake of formality. “Jugaad” works. It could mean having your father as a doctor working in government or private sector, or a bureaucrat working in the government or having somebody who knows a Minister. Such people often “put in a word” for a particular candidate and ensure their selection. Money to obtain a post in the hospital is quite well known within the medical fraternity and the amount often runs into lakhs for a three-year Senior Residency post. It is hard to believe that such things might be happening without the knowledge of the government. What then is the reason for AAP’s silence on the issue? Why have no steps been taken to bring transparency in the appointments? How would ill-trained doctors appointed by corruption provide good and skillful healthcare to patients? How would these doctors be empathetic towards the plight of patients? For past two years, there have been talks on conducting centralized appointments for senior resident doctors in Delhi based on a written test. However, they are just talks and there seem to be no signs of any such thing happening in the near future. Will AAP finally wake up from the slumber? more