Suspended doctor allowed to rejoin duty

LUDHIANA: Dr Sudha Vasudev — who was arrested by the Ludhiana police on December 24, 2014, for running an illegal de-addiction centre at Mullanpur — has been given permission by the government to rejoin duty as a psychiatrist at the Samrala Sub-divisional Hospital, before she takes charge of a de-addiction centre to be opened at the same hospital, as the government needs a psychiatrist to start the centre.
After her bail in the above-mentioned case, Dr Vasudev had requested to rejoin duty, upon which principal secretary Vini Mahajan allowed her to do so on the condition that her rejoining will not affect the ongoing inquiry in her case. It may be mentioned here that Dr Vasudev — who was arrested under the NDPS (Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances) Act — had spent about 4-5 months in jail. She worked earlier as a psychiatrist at the Ludhiana Civil Hospital.
This is not the first case of a suspended doctor being allowed to rejoin duty. Earlier, Dr Alka Mittal — who was suspended by health minister Surjit Kumar Jiyani on November 23, 2014, for being responsible for the death of five newborns at the Mother Child Hospital — was brought back as a gynaecologist at the Raikot Civil Hospital, to meet the shortage of specialist doctors with the government.