Kolkata: The state health department has started the process of reverting to merit-based counselling for the appointment of senior resident doctors (SR) with the launch of the portal, where eligible candidates can fill their choice for the place of posting. The portal opened on Wednesday, nine days after the department’s order of fresh counselling for SR postings.Under the state’s bond norms, medical post-graduate trainees have to serve at govt health facilities for three years after completion of their post-graduate courses, the first year being at a medical college. The next two years, they can be posted at any govt health unit, including a district, sub-divisional or a rural hospital.The placement procedure used to be carried out through this merit-based counselling system but the health department in March revised its SOP, doing away with it. Soon after the policy change, around 930 SRs were allotted placements in an arbitrary way.The move caused resentment in the medical community with junior doctors as well as faculty members fearing nepotism in the appointments. Many junior doctors even quit. “By bringing back the merit-based counselling, we want to restore transparency and fairness while addressing the concerns of the medical community,” said a senior health official.An official said eligible candidates could log on to the portal with their registration number and fill their choice of posting according to their discipline or speciality between a specific server time between Wednesday and Friday. Placement would be offered via screening, the official added.Apart from those who opted out of the bonded service, most PGTs are already working as SRs following their March placement order. Health officials said this period of posting would be counted as part of the three-year-bond posting if their place changed after the fresh counselling. “Scrapping the merit-based counselling was also in violation of the NMC guideline as senior residency is mandatory in a medical college at least for a year to take up teaching posts later,” said a senior faculty member.
