CHENNAI: Government doctors associations in the State have revived their demand for creation of a corpus fund from their salaries, to provide solatium to families of deceased doctors.
In 2017, the then State President of Service Doctors and Post Graduates Association Dr N Lakshmi Narasimhan submitted a memorandum for creating a corpus fund to the Health Secretary. The memorandum stated that this fund can be created by deducting Rs 300 from the monthly salary of all government doctors, and this can be used to provide Rs 1 crore solatium to the family of every deceased doctor in government service.
“If Rs 300 was deducted from salary of 15,000 doctors for 12 months, the government would have a corpus fund of Rs 5.4 crore. On an average, five doctors die every year, and easily the families can be provided Rs 1 crore each,” Dr Narasimhan had said in the memorandum. Members of the doctors association recall that government authorities had appreciated the memorandum then, but no order was issued for such a fund.
The federation of government doctors association noted that four government doctors passed away due to Covid, but only families of two received solatium and that too only Rs 25 lakh. “Kin of the late Dr Sukumar and Dr Kalyanaraman from Madhuranthagam and Tuticoriun respectively got the benefits. But families of Dr Vivekanandan and Dr Shanmugapriya from Tiruvallur and Madurai respectively received no such aid,” said one of the association members.
Legal Coordination committee for Government Doctors president Dr S Perumal Pillai said that at least now the government should come forward to create a corpus fund so that the families of Covid victims receive the solatium.
“The beneficiaries for this corpus fund must include the kin of doctors who passed away since 2017,” Dr Pillai said. He has also written to the Health Minister in this regard. Dr Pillai clarified that such a fund should not just cover Covid deaths, but all accidents or illness while on duty. Meanwhile, the health department officials said they would look into the possibility of this after consulting with the Minister. “This is an appreciable move by the doctors association and we would look into it,” an official said.
Back story
In 2017, the then State President of Service Doctors and Post Graduates Association Dr N Lakshmi Narasimhan submitted a memorandum for creating a corpus fund to the Health Secretary. The memorandum stated that this fund can be created by deducting Rs 300 from the monthly salary of all government doctors, and this can be used to provide Rs 1 crore solatium to the family of every deceased doctor in govt service