Shimla: Now resident doctors will work for 12 hours

Shimla: The state government has fixed the duty hours of resident doctors to 12 hours. The Health Department issued an order in this regard to the Director, Medical Education and Research yesterday. He said that the government has proposed to fix fixed and planned duty hours for postgraduate students in all government medical colleges of Himachal on the lines of government medical colleges of Karnataka.

The order said, “The matter was examined at the government level and it was decided that the duty hours of resident doctors should not exceed 12 hours per day, including on-call duty.” Resident doctors doing postgraduate have to do continuous duty for 24 to 36 hours in most medical colleges. This decision will now be applicable in all government medical colleges of Shimla, Tanda of Kangra, Chamba, Nahan, Hamirpur and Nair Chowk (Mandi) apart from dental colleges. Medical colleges have been asked to submit compliance report with new emergency roster for resident doctors within a week.