Vijayawada: Doctors sharply react to order on selfies

Vijayawada: Sharply reacting to the order of the Commissioner of Health and Family Welfare, Katamneni Bhaskar, that the government doctors should take selfies every two hours and upload them in the department website, AP Government Doctors Association president Dr P Shyam Sundar said that it was ridiculous and highly objectionable to instruct the doctors, who are always busy treating the patients to take selfies every two hours.

It should be noted here that during a video conference late on Thursday, the Commissioner instructed the doctors to take selfies every two hours and upload them on the department website. This appears to be to make sure that they are on duty.

Speaking here on Friday, Dr Shyam Sundar said that the doctors would always be thinking of the treatment procedure to the patients and to ask them to take selfies with the background of the hospital every two hours would divert their attention to discharge their duties. "It appears that there was no rationality behind this order," he said.

For instance, the surgeons would be in the operation theatres conducting operations which may extend for hours together and how they could take selfies in the operation theatre, he wondered.

The government appears to be planning to tighten the screws on the government doctors to wean them from going for private practice. The government wants to detect the whereabouts of the doctors every two hours and take action against them if they are not available for the patients.

The government doctors say that there are many ways to find out whether the doctors are going for private practice or not but this is ridiculous.