Rs 1 crore handed to kin of govt doctors who died on duty in 2022
A cheque of total of Rs 8.50 crores was issued to the kin of 13 doctors who died on duty during the years 2020 and 2021 from the Doctors' Voluntary Corpus Fund through the Chief Minister in 2023.
Health minister Ma Subramanian handed over an amount of Rs 1 crore each to the kin of seven government doctors who died on duty in the year 2022.
CHENNAI: Health minister Ma Subramanian handed over an amount of Rs 1 crore each to the kin of seven government doctors who died on duty in the year 2022.
The Doctors' Voluntary Corpus Fund has been established to provide stipend to the kin of family members in case of an unexpected death of a doctor in government service. It was set up in 2020. In the initial phase, Rs 50 lakhs was given from the corpus fund to the family and currently, Rs 1 crore is being contributed.
A cheque of total of Rs 8.50 crores was issued to the kin of 13 doctors who died on duty during the years 2020 and 2021 from the Doctors' Voluntary Corpus Fund through the Chief Minister in 2023.
With a voluntary contribution of Rs 6,000 annually from each doctor, the funds were raised towards the Corpus Fund for the doctors during the year 2020-21. Later, a government order was issued on October 12, 2021, that a fund of Rs 1 crore will be given to the doctors who died on duty.
"From March 2022 onwards, a monthly deduction of Rs 500 is being made from the salary of doctors who volunteered for the same. In the initial phase, around 2,000 doctors had volunteered. Currently, 10,017 doctors have expressed their interest in the Corpus Fund and are contributing towards the same voluntarily, the health minister said.
Talking about offering employment to the immediate heir of the doctors who died on duty, the health minister said that there is a demand to provide employment to the family members of those who died during service and the government is making such appointments in other departments. The heads of the Department of Medical Services and Rural Welfare, Director of Medical Education and Research and Director of Public Health and Preventive Medicine have been instructed to take steps to provide appointments to their family members based on their educational qualification.
He added that there can be three types of appointments, including junior assistant, typist, or office assistant, if the successors of doctors apply. As far as junior assistant posts are concerned, they might have to wait for the vacancies. Junior assistant post and Typist post have the same pay scale. So applicants for the post of junior assistant, who do not want to wait for the job, can apply for the typist training for 6 months and get appointment orders.
