A decision to this effect was taken at a cabinet meeting presided by Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal.
Madan Mohan Mittal, Health and Family Welfare Minister, Punjab said that according to the newly formed policy, all the health institutions have been divided into four categories namely A, B, C and D on the basis of their location and the doctors will be required to serve a certain minimum period there.
Category A would include the major cities like Amritsar, Patiala, Ludhiana and Jalandhar; Category B would cover semi-urban and urban areas, Category C would have other difficult areas which are not included in category B, while the Category D would cover the more difficult rural areas of the state.
According to the new policy, now a basic minimum tenure of service has been fixed for doctors in health institutions falling under each of these categories, i.E. In Category D has minimum tenure of 4 years, Category C minimum time for posting would be for 5 years, Category B- 7 years and remaining tenure can be served in the institutions falling under Category A.
The Minister said this policy would not be applicable to those medical officers, who have already completed their five years of service as on Jaunary one this year.
He said that once a medical officers completes the specified period of service in a particular category, he/she shall be given some preference regarding their choice of posting under the next eligible category.
However, he informed that the first posting shall only be given in the health institutions falling under the Category- D. Similarly, a minimum period of nine years of service shall be pre-requisite for the doctors for deputations to Chandigarh or other places.
Mittal said that all the posts of the specialist doctors have been taken out of the purview of the PPSC and these posts would now be filled through 'walk-in-interviews
