Chandigarh: Health dept hikes pay offered to attract doctors for vacant posts

UT health department is looking to hire 18 medical officers and 14 specialists through the National Health Mission for government health facilities in Chandigarh

Facing shortage of specialists and medical officers at its health facilities, the Chandigarh health department has been forced to increase salaries offered for vacant positions amid poor response to its job vacancy advertisements.

The salary for medical officers has been raised from the originally offered ₹45,000 to ₹72,072 — a significant 60% spike. Even the salary for 10 posts of gynaecologist has been boosted by 33%, going up from ₹75,000 to ₹1 lakh. (Getty image)

The department has been advertising vacancies through the National Health Mission (NHM) for the past one year to hire 18 medical officers and 14 specialists at Government Multi-Specialty Hospital, Sector 16, and three civil hospitals in Sector 22, Sector 45 and Manimajra.

But despite multiple attempts, the department has struggled to fill the 32 posts, primarily due to relatively low pay compared to other states.

In response, UT health services director Dr Suman Singh has now announced a significant pay hike for the positions, stating that the basic pay of various posts had been increased on par with other states.

Salaries hiked by up to 60%

The salary for medical officers has been raised from the originally offered ₹45,000 to ₹72,072 — a significant 60% spike. Even the salary for 10 posts of gynaecologist has been boosted by 33%, going up from ₹75,000 to ₹1 lakh.

The pay for single post of radiologist has been increased by 50% from ₹1 lakh to ₹1.5 lakh. Other specialists, including microbiologist, epidemiologist and anaesthetist, previously offered ₹75,000 against one each post, will now receive around ₹85,000 lakh — a 13% rise.

These adjustments, outlined in the fresh advertisement published on January 23, 2025, aim to make the roles more competitive and attractive to medical professionals.

The recruitment will be on contract basis for one year till March 1, 2026.

As mentioned in the advertisement, the contract can be extended depending on performance/conduct or duration of the project.

Walk-in interviews for the 18 posts of medical officer are scheduled for February 5, and interviews for other specialists will follow on February 7.

The department would deploy the newly recruited medical officers and specialists as per requirement in its hospitals.