Medicos in shock after autocratic orders on ‘leave’ issued by Punjab health department
Kanwar Inder Singh/ royalpatiala.in News/ April 4,2025
“Director health and family welfare department, Punjab government has issued an autocratic orders to all the deputy directors, civil surgeons (CS) , medical superintendent (MS), senior medical officers (SMOs) and asked them not to take any kind of leave without the prior sanction of principal secretary, health” said a frustrated doctor on the condition of anonymity.
In an orders issued to all the civil surgeons, medical superintendents the director health instructed the health department officials to take prior permission from the principal secretary, health for any leave.
Health department officers on the condition of anonymity said “the department is working in autocratic manner. We all are working whole heartedly to make Punjab a healthy state. But these types of orders will affect our work.
A SMO on the condition of anonymity said “many times a leave is required in emergency condition. In that case we inform our seniors and they sanction it. Now with the leave sanctioning authority has been changed, we have to wait for the sanction of PS sir who is a senor IAS officer and holds the charge of Principal Secretary, Health & Family Welfare and in addition Principal Secretary, Medical Education & Research. He has many government assignments which will delay in sanctioning emergency leaves.”
A lady SMO said “how can we ask the principal secretary to sanction our leave be it casual or medical or half day or in case of emergency, in odd hours or on weekends? It’s not easy to approach a senior IAS officer for day to day working how can anyone ask principal secretary to sanction our leave.”
Another doctor on the condition of anonymity said “ all the officers timely take care of court cases. The seniors are informed about the outcome of court cases in time. Moreover the director or principal secretary can call us for any information. We all provide them the official information in time even after anyone is on leave. The official work never suffers. But with these types of orders, we will mentally suffer.”
