The Delhi government has issued a circular restricting duty hours of resident doctors in all hospitals in the city to not more than 12 hours per shift per day.

2) Longer durations of clinical duties can only be sanctioned by the director or medical superintendent of the hospital but even in such exceptional cases, the total duration of the shift cannot exceed 17 hours, the circular specifies. In all such cases, the concerned authority would have to inform the secretary (health and family welfare) in the government of Delhi through email

3) West Bengal

Department of Health & Family Welfare

GA Branch

Swasthya Bhawan, GN-29, Sector-V,

Salt Lake City, Kolkata-700091

No. HF/O/GA/1936/W-153/11 Date: 26.07.2011

3. The Governor is pleased to authorize the Superintendent to prepare a duty roster including shift duties, on-call period and day-off for medical officers, specialists, and other staff to run round the clock services in a manner as mentioned in ‘Schedule B’

(a) In the interest of public service, all the out-patient departments, in-patient departments, clinics, units including the P.P. Unit and the Blood Bank under the administrative control of a particular Superintendent, will be considered as a single unit and the employees attached with such units can be allocated duties anywhere as deemed fit by the Superintendent.

(b) Such duty rosters will be prepared, if required, in consultation with the concerned employees. The roster will clearly mention the shift duties and on-call period for each specified day in the week applicable to each individual employee. While preparing the duty roster, the Superintendent will take into consideration the total shift duty hours of an employee which should not be less than 40 hours per week.

changes in the duty roster are not desirable. Besides displaying those duty rosters in the office notice board, the availability of doctors will be displayed as a part of Citizens’ Charter mentioned above.

(d) The outpatient based services mentioned in ‘Schedule A’ will remain closed on Sundays and holidays notified by the department for this specific purpose from time to time.

4. (a) The Governor is further pleased to authorize the Superintendent of the different hospitals to adjust the hours of duty of Medical Officers of their institutions on specified days in the week or by rotation to run the indoor and other services on Sundays/notified holidays. On such holidays the indoor, emergency and other services will be provided through local arrangements in consultation with medical officers/specialists and other staff.

(b) Notwithstanding the fixation of the hours of duty as above, the services of the medical officers/specialists and other staff may be utilized at any time beyond the scheduled hours in any manner as may be required by the Superintendent in terms of Rule 15 of W.B.S.R. Part I. without claim for additional remuneration vide rule 15 of the West Bengal Service Rules, Part-I. Relevant extracts are enclosed.

5) as per above circular you cannot be made to work 24 hours per day

6) you can complain in writing to the administrator regarding irregular working hours

It is not clear if you were appointed in West Bengal Medical Education Service or not. if yes then you are not eligible for PHC .

Moreover no specialists can be posted in Rural health service as per notification nO. No. Health/MA/433/JS-5/93 Pt-I Dated, Calcutta 3.3.1993 .

Please refer to No. HF/O/MERT/416/HPT/23T-14-2000 Kolkata, the 24th day of April, 2008 whereby the time limit prescribed is three years.

If you are from kolkata feel free to contact for further assistance as your transfer can be revoked .

1. Is there any guidelines or any court of law rulling regarding maximum permissible duty hours for Medical Officers ?

You have been appointed after giving the offer letter in which the terms of employment had been mentioned clearly in writing, hence before accepting the offer letter it was your duty to verify the conditions and give your consent before accepting the employment.

Therefore refer to the employment offer letter in which the terms and condition s including duty or working hours at different stages have been mentioned in it properly.

2. Is there any legal provision to complaint against such irregular place of posting ( as our duty demands to stay at place of posting through out the week , and I have no quarter, and no where to stay, in fact no MO Quarter is available in my block ).

This type of inconveniences have to be faced during the initial period of employment, especially during the temporary or probationary period, however refer to the rules whether you are entitled for HRA during training/apprenticeship/internship/probationary period and if yes, then you can make a representation in writing to the authorities and seek reliefs due to you.

3. Is there any legal way to get the due HRA and any further such.

Confirm if you are eligible for HRA and then make a representation for claiming it.