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84% posts vacant, Punjab govt plans ₹80K monthly incentive for super-specialists
The idea aims to increase the retention rate by making the salary competitive with what they get in the private sector. According to a senior health official, the monthly salary of a super-specialist in a private hospital ranges between ₹2.5 lakh and ₹3.5 lakh whereas they hardly get ₹1.20 lakh per month in the government institutions.
Not able to attract super-specialists due to low pay and perks, the Punjab medical education and research department has planned to introduce a special incentive of ₹80,000 per month. The proposal has been sent to the finance department for approval.
The idea aims to increase the retention rate by making the salary competitive with what they get in the private sector. According to a senior health official, the monthly salary of a super-specialist in a private hospital ranges between ₹2.5 lakh and ₹3.5 lakh whereas they hardly get ₹1.20 lakh per month in the government institutions.
Health and medical education minister Dr Balbir Singh said, “We are exploring the idea of paying ₹80,000 monthly super-speciality incentive as we have not been able to attract super-specialists under the present salary set-up. Apart from this, we also plan to provide government accommodation. A proposal in this regard has been sent to the finance department.”
He said that even with incentives and accommodation facilities, the department won’t be able to match the salary of the private sector but would be able to attract more experts as the government job of a super-specialist entails “very low pressure” as compared to that in the private sector.
According to the data of the medical education and research department, the dearth of super-specialists has hit the functioning of medical colleges and hospitals as there are only 20 super-specialists against the 125 sanctioned posts. This means 84% posts are vacant. Efforts of the successive governments to fill these posts have not yielded desired results. Even the government’s efforts to conduct walk-in-interviews have not attracted much attention from the super-specialists.
Apart from incentivising, the government is coming up with ‘pay clinic’ system wherein specialists and super-specialists will get the option of doing private practice at the government facilities under a formula in which fee charged during overtime (after 2 pm) will be shared among specialists, supporting staff and the government facilities in the ratio of 40:20:40.
According to information, this ‘pay clinic’ system is likely to be introduced in the coming months for which the modalities have already been cleared. “It is a fact that specialists and super-specialists often deny government jobs as they have the option of earning better in the private sector. The department was going to do the experiment where the specialists and super-specialists will get the option to see patients in the overtime as their own practice after 2 pm,” said the health minister.
The government is facing tough time to hire not only super-specialists but also specialists. In its last advertisement (November last year) regarding hiring of 634 specialists, the Punjab government received only 592 applications and only 71 joined eventually. Several of them have already resigned.
