The Sindh health department has taken action against absentee doctors and issued show-cause notices to 507 such doctors over the past 17 months. Also, 54 doctors who were absent from duty have submitted their resignations, and 39 doctors have been terminated from their service after being served with the final-show-cause notice.
The health department has also issued final show-cause notices to 121 doctors. These actions have been taken as part of an ongoing crackdown on ghost/absentee doctors from January 2022 to May 2023, said a spokesman for the department.
It has been observed that these absentee doctors lacked interest in career advancement, and the government hopes to fill their positions through the appointment of junior doctors. The health department has already requested legal advice regarding how this process may be carried out.
In response to these actions, the chief minister has requested detailed information from the health department regarding the absent doctors.
The director-general of health services has been directed to collect information about such doctors to ensure transparency in the process. The fear of disciplinary actions has led to the resignations of doctors working in foreign countries as well.
A health department spokesman has said that fearing action, 54 absentee doctors have resigned, while the services of 39 have been terminated after the issuance of final show-cause notices to them.
He further said that action against doctors who remained absent from duties had begun so that government hospitals could be made functional again.
He elaborated that the department had sought legal opinion from the services department in order to give promotions to junior doctors so that they could replace those not interested in promotions and those found negligent in their duties.
Published at The News on 4 July 2023