CHENNAI: Following the state government's order to withhold in-service reservation in postgraduate (PG) medical seats of certain specialities in Tamil Nadu, doctors associations in the state have demanded reconsideration of the order, terming it as being unfair to the candidates.

The number of seats reserved in the postgraduate admissions for service candidates will be decided dynamically on a year-on-year basis, as per the availability of the vacancies, the recent GO had said. This would imply that the 50 per cent seats will not be reserved for the in-service doctors. This was done due to saturation of vacancies in certain specialities, the health department said.

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The in-service reservation of PG seats will also be kept in abeyance for a year for specialities other than General Medicine, General Surgery, Paediatrics, Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Orthopaedics, Anaesthesiology, Chest Medicine, Radiology, Community Medicine and Forensic Medicine.

The Doctors Association for Social Equality stated that the public sector requires more specialist doctors and that many of them have been serving in government hospitals and medical colleges after finishing PG but now the government has restricted them from pursuing postgraduate education in certain specialities, citing that there are already enough specialists in those areas.

"The GO will lead to a shortage of specialists in government hospitals and medical colleges, and will ultimately impact the public health sector. New job opportunities need to be created. Many young doctors have been deprived of employment opportunities because of lack of vacancies and now they are being denied the opportunity to pursue higher education of their choice. This is not the right approach. Therefore, we demand that the government order should be withdrawn immediately," said Dr G R Ravindranath.

The Tamil Nadu Government Doctors Association has already suggested that the State should appoint medical professors in government medical colleges based on the number of students and patients there.

They also sought for the reconsideration of the GO and asked for it to be done in a phased manner, considering the availability of specialists and seats.