RIMS doctors will not be allowed to do private practice, state health minister Ramchandra Chandravanshi said on Friday.

“Chief minister Raghubar Das has already made it clear that everybody will have to follow the rule,” Chandravanshi said, addressing a media meet at Suchana Bhavan along with state health secretary Nitin Madan Kulkarni and RIMS director Dinesh Kumar Singh.

Kulkarni pointed out that as per the law doctors of medical colleges in Jharkhand are prohibited from doing private practice.

“Doctors of medical colleges are given non-practising allowance at the rate of 20 per cent of their total basic salary. We appeal people to inform us if they come to know about any doctor of medical college doing private practice. But we have no plan to include doctors other than medical colleges in the NPA (non-practising allowance) category,” Kulkarni said.

Asked whether action has been taken against any RIMS doctors for private practice, Singh said notices have been issued to eight physicians.

“RIMS has also taken disciplinary action against two doctors and their salary increment has been kept on hold. But I will not disclose their names,” the director said.

RIMS doctors are peeved over CM Das’s statement that the state anti-corruption bureau will probe government doctors involved in private practice.

Asked about it, Singh said: “We should not be afraid of probe if we are not wrong. Everybody will have to follow the rule.”

Doctors of RIMS are also unhappy that other than usual duty hours they are being asked to stay in the hospital from 6pm to 7pm to make rounds of the wards.

“Evening round is a must in a hospital and there is nothing wrong if the doctors have been asked to do so,” a senior doctor at RIMS said.

“At RIMS this practice was abandoned during undivided Bihar. The reason was that the hospital mostly remained deserted due to poor infrastructure. But now the situation of RIMS has improved and the hospital witnesses huge footfall of patients.”