AP govt decision to appoint IAS officer as DME upsets doctors

Andhra Pradesh Medical Education Rules specify that a senior professor with five years of teaching experience in a medical college is to be appointed as director of medical education. 

As per a report published in Deccan Chronicle, the Indian Medical Association (IMA) has objected to appointment of a person from non-medical field as Director of Medical Education in Andhra Pradesh. The medical body is in the process of taking up the matter with the Central government and the National Medical Commission.  

The state government recently gave additional charge of director of medical education to an Indian Administrative Officer (IAS) officer, as he is already serving as commissioner of the Andhra Pradesh Vaidya Vidhana Parishad (APVVP). Andhra Pradesh Medical Education Rules specify that a senior professor with five years of teaching experience in a medical college is to be appointed as director of medical education. 

What rules state 

The rules clearly state that the director of health and family welfare, commissioner of APVVP and director of medical education should be from the medical field, having academic qualifications such as masters or doctoral degrees in medicine, surgery or similar higher medical qualification. 

Government doctors said that heads of the three health wings must only be from the medical field, especially those who head health and family welfare and APVVP. They will thus be able to handle any medical emergency by dint of their experience of having worked in hospitals from village to district level. But a non-medical person will have to depend on a medical professional to handle the situation. 

Appoinment of DME temporary, says govt 

Citing these issues, government doctors are getting ready to stage protests; even though the state government has been maintaining that the appointment of the IAS officer as DME is only temporary. 

A doctor from AP Government Doctors’ Association said, “We hope that the government will appoint a medical professional to head the Directorate of Medical Education, even though winter session of AP legislature is in progress and government is preoccupied with important issues.” 

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