Retirement age of govt doctors raised to 65 years

Modi said there is a need for more doctors across country but it was not possible to fill the gap in 2 years of his govt

The retirement age of all doctors in the Central Health Service has been raised to 65 years with effect from Tuesday. Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the decision would benefit about 4,000 doctors.

“The central government has decided to enhance the superannuation age of all doctors in the Central Health Service to 65 years with effect 31st May 2016,” he tweeted. “With this step, we retain our experienced doctors for a longer period & provide quality health services to citizens, particularly the poor,” Modi added in another tweet.

There are about 4,000 doctors under the Central Health Service, according to the Health Ministry website.

Modi had announced at a rally in Saharanpur on May 26 that the Cabinet would take a decision within a week to raise the retirement age for doctors to 65 years “whether in states or government of India”.

Health Minister J P Nadda said on Tuesday the step would empower the government to strengthen the health care sector. “This will enable the government to retain experienced doctors for a longer period, and to provide better services in its public health facilities, particularly to the poorest, who are entirely dependent on public facilities,” he said.

Health pool
“It will help in providing additional doctors in the health pool of the country. This will strengthen the efforts of the ministry in conceptualising and rolling out various people-oriented schemes which need the services of doctors in implementing them,” he said.

Modi had said at the May 26 rally that there was a need for more doctors across the country but it was not possible to fill the gap in two years of his government.

"There is a shortage of doctors. In government hospitals, their retirement is 60 years in some states, 62 in some others. If adequate numbers of medical institutes were there, then we would have more doctors and would not feel the shortage. It is difficult to make doctors in two years but poor families cannot be forced to live without doctors.

"Therefore from Uttar Pradesh, I want to announce this to my countrymen that this week our government's Cabinet will take a decision and the retirement age of our doctors, whether in states or government of India, would be made 65 years instead of 60 or 62," he said.