According to a BMC employee who requested anonymity, departmental action was initiated by Dr Chaya Shinde, Dean of Dr RN Cooper Municipal General Hospital.
The notices were signed by the medical superintendent (I/C) of the trauma hospital and directed the doctors to submit their responses within 48 hours.
“It is an internal action. The trauma hospital remains functional,” Dr Shinde, the dean, said briefly in response to a query from Mid-Day.
Queries from Mid-Day seeking a detailed official response on the action went unanswered by Dr Shinde and Dr Urmila Patil, Deputy Executive Health Officer (I/C) of the zone.
Patients have complained about doctors’ absence
According to the source, patients at the trauma hospital, which has around 80 doctors, have repeatedly complained about the unavailability of doctors. Some of the 35 doctors who were served notices had also been pulled up for similar issues in the past.
“After this action and the list of doctors who were served notices came to light, doctors at the HBT Trauma Hospital themselves were like, ‘Oh! They work here? We haven’t seen them ever,’” a doctor said.
Notices served to postgraduate doctors
According to the source, all 35 doctors are postgraduate doctors, including lecturers, senior medical consultants (SMCs) and bonded doctors.
“Bonded doctors can be called anytime, 24 by7. Lecturers and SMCs are supposed to work from 9 am to 4 pm on weekdays and from 9 am to 1 pm on Saturdays,” the source said.
Doctor alleges attendance manipulation
A doctor familiar with the matter alleged that some doctors had previously been marking their biometric attendance before leaving the hospital and returning later to punch out.
“Earlier, some doctors used to punch in biometrically, leave the hospital and then return to punch out, thereby deceiving the attendance data. But nowadays, it seems like they aren’t even doing that; they just don’t come at all,” the doctor alleged.
The doctor further alleged that the practice amounted to a waste of public funds spent on salaries.
“This is a wastage of lakhs of public money that goes towards their salaries. For almost four years, such doctors, with salaries of almost Rs 1 lakh per month, have looted the BMC of Rs 50 lakh each, with almost no benefit to patients,” the doctor alleged.
The show-cause notices and allegations over attendance have put the focus on the availability of doctors at the BMC-run HBT Trauma Hospital, where 35 postgraduate doctors have been asked to explain their insufficient and irregular biometric attendance.
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