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SMCH’s Intern doctors not getting salary; CM responds to tweet; “Delay due to technical issues,” Superintendent

Doctors are frontline warriors and the chief minister of Assam, Himanta Biswa Sarma has made it clear they the doctors must be provided with all sorts of security. Today evening, an intern doctor who identifies himself as Dr. Arindam Basu on Twitter, posted that the intern doctors of Silchar Medical College and Hospital are not getting their salaries.

The tweet read, “Sir with due respect…We the interns in silchar medical college have been working 10-12 hrs every day be it covid or non-covid departments. Every month we dont get salary on time…What is our fault sir? We also have expenses…How do we sustain ourself…PLZ HELP.” Chief Minister of Assam, Himanta Biswa Sarma immediately respondent to the tweet tagging principal secretary to Chief Minister, Samir Sinha and NHM Assam. CM’s reply read, “Pl enquire and take remedial measures.”

While the junior doctor said the salary is delayed every month, the superintendent of Silchar Medical College and Hospital, Dr. Abhijit Swami said it is just a momentary delay for the month of May. Speaking with Barak Bulletin, Dr. Swami said, “There are a couple of technical issues that we are facing at this moment due to which the disbursement of some salaries got delayed.”

He added, “They are a new batch of doctors who have joined SMCH as interns. Whenever we get new batches, we need to feed in their bank account details for automated disbursement of salaries. That process is on. Moreover, the grade III staff who is dealing with accounts has had a personal loss in his family. His wife tested positive for COVID and then he lost his father to the infection and therefore has been in isolation.”

Silchar Medical College and Hospital has a scarcity of Grade III and Grade IV staff. Principal cum chief-superintendent of SMCH, Dr. Babul Kumar Bezbaruah had said in an interview that there are around 300 non-teaching posts lying vacant. About Dr. Arindam Basu’s allegation that the intern doctors never get their salaries on time, Dr. Bezbaruah said that the salary for the month of May is pending.

Dr. Basu’s tweet in desperation tagging the chief minister looked like a last resort call to solve the issue. Every month, he tweeted their salaries get delayed. Principal Dr. Bezbaruah and Superintendent, Dr. Abhijit Swami both said that they never had a discussion about delays in salaries with the new doctors in recent times. “If the matter was brought to our notice, we would have explained it to them, but they did not ask us about it,” said the superintendent.

Dr. Swami also said that in some months, the disbursement of salaries gets delayed due to the delay in the submission of necessary documents. From each department, an attendance report is sent based on which the salaries are disbursed. If there is a delay in sending that report from the respective department, the salaries are disbursed late.

It is clear that in the age of automation, Silchar Medical College and Hospital is following an outdated process that requires multiple human interventions. Now that the CM has asked Principal Secretary and NHM Assam to look for remedial measures, SMCH might get a dose of technological upliftment. Also, the public outburst from the doctor brings in shame for the institution that recently completed 2 lakh RT-PCR tests and became the first Medical College in Assam to do so.

Please note: Dr. Arindam Basu has now deleted his tweet.

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