Students equal partners in 11-member state task force, govt issues notification
Times of India | 23 October 2024
Kolkata: The Bengal govt on Tuesday issued a formal order including junior doctors in the apex committee which will keep tabs not only on the security and infrastructure upgrade in state-run healthcare institutions, the bed referral system but also the college-level committees, including Internal Complaints Committee (ICC). The 11-member committee, incidentally, will have six doctors’ representatives.
According to the formal notification issued by state chief secretary Manoj Pant, the committee that will meet once-a-month at least, will be chaired by him.
It will have the state DGP and the Kolkata Police commissioner as its members in addition to the state home and health secretaries. As the junior doctors’ request to CM Mamata Banerjee, this committee will now also have two representatives each from the senior resident doctors and junior resident doctors.
It will have one member from the newly formed state level grievance redressal committee and a female medical student representative. The govt notification has not clearly spelt out how these junior doctors’ representatives will be selected, but the doctors had proposed they will do it “democratically and transparently”. The state has left it to the doctors to decide on their representatives.
But stepping ahead of what was discussed, the notification makes it clear that this panel will not only be an oversight committee for security and infrastructure upgrade. The doctors will now be more-than-equal stakeholders to roll out central bed referral system and real-time bed availability monitoring system, and even installation of helplines, panic buttons. It also specified that the committee’s terms of reference will also include, “Overseeing the functioning of various committees including the security audit committees and the internal complaints committee (ICC)”. Its scope has also been extended further to “collaborate and coordinate with all stakeholders to provide high-quality healthcare to citizens in Bengal”.
The CS has also been allowed to invite or include experts during committee deliberations. To avoid any misinterpretation, the state has also released a detailed note on the discussions in Nabanna on Monday, in which it clearly spelt out that “elections to students unions will be held by March 2025” but made it clear that representation of elected student representatives in college bodies can only be done after that. It also mentioned that principals cannot unilaterally take penal actions on complaints and grievances. The principal’s inquiry and recommendations must be given to chief secretary.