Guwahati: In a Facebook Live session Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, refuted Congress party claims about mass resignations of doctors impacting healthcare in state-run medical colleges. Prior to the live session, CM Sarma met with health department officials to gather accurate data. He shared, “This is a fact that every year, some doctors resign in the state. In 2021, 36 doctors from medical colleges resigned while 279 new doctors joined. In 2022, 12 resigned while 441 joined. In 2023, 64 doctors resigned while 302 joined. And in 2024, five doctors have resigned, while 183 will join the medical colleges. However, the number of resignations will go up to 30-35. According to our data, 1,676 new doctors have joined government hospitals in the state from 2016 to 2024.”
Addressing Congress’s concerns, Sarma added, “Congress party is enjoying this as they think medical colleges will get shut down. A few days back, I mentioned that Tinsukia Medical College Hospital has been given accreditation by the National Medical Council (NMC), following which the number of medical colleges in Assam has risen to 13. Congress wants these medical colleges to get shut down.”
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Explaining the reasons behind the resignations, CM Sarma stated, “Firstly, the age of retirement of doctors in the state is 70 years. In case of other jobs, this limit is 60 years. So for the age of 70, many doctors are not in a position to work, for which they want to retire. Secondly, a new doctor who has joined as a doctor wants to take additional education. They want to resign to do Doctorate of Medicine (DM) or (Magister Chirurgiae)/Master of Surgery, so we accept their resignation. Thirdly, there are doctors who want to go to the private sector or nursing homes to find more salary or income. Many such doctors want to resign.” Taking a jibe at Congress, CM Sarma questioned, “The Congress is happy to learn about doctors resigning. But why does the Congress not give this information about how many doctors have got new appointments?”