Chennai: The Tamil Nadu People's Welfare Department has temporarily suspended the ordinance that restricted the allocation of certain postgraduate medical courses to government-reserved seats.

The decree initially allowed only 10 departments for those joining through government quota seats in postgraduate medical courses.

Under the state government quota, 50% of postgraduate medical seats are allocated to MBBS doctors working in government hospitals. These doctors can choose their specialization in fields such as MD and MS and continue serving in government hospitals.

However, the ordinance had specified that only certain courses like general medicine, general surgery, child welfare, obstetrics, social medicine, and anesthesiology would be available, excluding other specializations such as ENT, dermatology, ophthalmology, mental health, and emergency medicine. This restriction sparked protests from the doctors' association.

In response, Public Welfare Department Secretary Supriya Sahu issued an order to suspend Ordinance 151, which limited access to only 10 postgraduate courses for government doctors, pending further orders.

Ramalingam, Secretary of the Government Doctors and Graduate Doctors Association, expressed gratitude to Public Welfare Minister Subramanian and other officials for the suspension of the ordinance.