The Tamil Nadu Government Doctors Association has defended doctors taking rest during available breaks in 24-hour duty, after a doctor at Thoothukudi Government Hospital was found asleep during a midnight inspection by Srivaikuntam MLA Saravanan.
The association’s state president, Dr Srinivasan, said it was wrong to portray the doctor as sleeping during active duty without considering the working conditions and duty schedules in government hospitals. His remarks were reported by Dinamalar.
According to the report, the MLA conducted an inspection at the hospital at around midnight. A doctor who was on duty was found sleeping and was contacted by telephone through a nurse before coming out. The incident subsequently led to reports that the doctor had been asleep during working hours.
Dr Srinivasan said government doctors are assigned 24-hour duties depending on the number of doctors available at a particular hospital. Such duties may be scheduled once a week, once every five days or once every four days, he said. He added that doctors may rest when there are no patients requiring attention, but are expected to work continuously when patients keep arriving or when an accident occurs.
The association president said doctors may work without rest throughout a 24-hour period during periods of continuous patient arrivals or emergencies. He also said that, unlike the police, doctors are assigned such 24-hour duty arrangements, according to the report.
He questioned whether the MLA had arrived to inspect the hospital or had brought a patient, while noting that there were no patients present when the inspection took place. His argument was that resting during a period without patients should not by itself be treated as dereliction of duty.
The doctor had reportedly locked the room while resting because a government hospital is a public place where people enter and leave, creating a risk of personal belongings such as a mobile phone or wallet being stolen. The association said the doctor came out immediately after the nurse called, believing that a patient had arrived.
Dr Srinivasan said questions should arise if a doctor was absent from duty or had left the hospital premises, rather than merely because the doctor was resting inside the hospital during a period without patients. The report did not state whether the hospital administration initiated any disciplinary action or issued a separate statement on the incident.
