E-Paper
Punjab government conducts survey to address high attrition rate of doctors
According to a letter shot off by the director health and family welfare department, all medical officers (MOs), senior doctors and specialists have been asked to participate in the online survey on the reasons of low response to recruitment and high attrition rate of specialist doctors in Punjab
Irked by the high attrition rate of specialist doctors and sluggish response to recruitment drives, the Punjab health department conducted a survey to take feedback from the doctors over the issue.
According to a letter shot off by the director health and family welfare department, all medical officers (MOs), senior doctors and specialists have been asked to participate in the online survey on the reasons of low response to recruitment and high attrition rate of specialist doctors in Punjab.
Attrition rate is a metric that quantifies the rate at which employees depart an organisation, whether voluntarily or involuntarily.
Notably, on December 6, the health department constituted a committee headed by the principal secretary health to suggest measures to enhance the recruitment and retention of MOs (specialists and super-specialists) in government jobs.
This committee has prepared a questionnaire to ascertain the reasons for the low response to recruitment drives and the high attrition rate of specialist doctors.
“A few questions asked in the survey were: what is the single most important reason for low recruitment of specialists and what is the single most important reason for high attrition of specialists?” said a doctor.
“The survey will be immensely useful to ascertain the exact reasons. The survey has been completed as per the deadline of December 12 and we are analysing its findings. Low retention rate and discouraging response to recruitment drive is a huge cause of concern,” said Dr Adarshpal Kaur, director health services.
Official records accessed by HT reveal that in the latest recruitment drive carried out last year, against advertised 634 posts, a mere 271 (42%) joined and among them as well, nearly 50 have already left the job. In this advertisement, only 592 applicants had applied for the job against 634 posts.
Meanwhile, the Punjab Civil Medical Services Association (PCMSA) has welcomed the decision to conduct a survey.
“PCMSA has been consistently raising red flags over the issue and has listed a plethora of reasons for the same, which include low entry-level pay, engagement in general emergency duties (MLR/PMR/court appearances) due to an acute shortage of MBBS doctors, VVIP/VIP duties, unscheduled on-call duties, a fixed meagre PG allowance, lack of incentives under ABSSBY, shortage of paramedical staff, inadequate equipment/infrastructure and unsafe work environment, “Dr Akhil Sarin, PCMSA state president, said.
The association hoped that the government would finally walk the talk and address the issue in a pragmatic and holistic way.
“However, meaningful engagement with the stakeholders, especially the PCMSA will be vital for achieving the necessary course corrections in this direction,” the association said.
In another bid to retain specialists and super-specialists, the Punjab health department is also coming up with a ‘Pay Clinic’ system wherein the specialists will get the option of doing private practice at the government facilities under a formula in which fee charged by the said doctor will be shared among specialists, supporting staff and the government facility.
