Uttarakhand govt forming schemes to lure doctors amid scarcity
tarakhand health department in December last year had come up with an attractive new scheme ‘You Quote We Pay’ to overcome the shortage of specialist doctors in the state.
Uttarakhand is grappling with a severe shortage of specialists and super-specialist doctors. As per the data collected from the health department, there are only 515 regular specialist and super-specialist doctors against 1,254 sanctioned posts in the state– a shortage of around 59%.
Currently, Uttarakhand only has one government cardiologist, additionally, the state has one government oncologist, one neurosurgeon and one urologist to cater to the population of over one crore.
When asked about the reason behind the shortage of specialists at government hospitals, a super-specialist doctor posted at Government Doon Medical College and Hospital in Dehradun, who didn’t wish to be named, said, “The workload on the super specialists whose number is the bare minimum in the state is above normal.”
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According to the doctor, “It’s not just about the shortage of doctors, but about the poor infrastructure. Our hospital, the biggest government hospital in the state capital, doesn’t have required machines in various departments.”
However, against this, the state health department is working on schemes such as offering specialist doctors attractive salaries.
R Rajesh Kumar, secretary (health), said, “Against the requirement of 1,254 specialists and super-specialist doctors, we have 515 such doctors. However, we are trying to fill that gap. On contract, 37 specialist doctors through Uttarakhand Health Systems Development Project (UKHSDP – a World Bank-funded project) and National Health Mission (NHM) are working with us.”
When asked that the state has just one cardiologist and barely one or two doctors for each super specialisation, he said, “Under public-private partnership (PPP) mode, Meditrina Hospital is providing around four cardiologists to run the cardiac care centre in Coronation Hospital in Dehradun. Besides, we provide MD medicine doctors short-term cardiology training from AIIMS, Rishikesh, making them capable of handling basic cardiology-related ailments.”
Uttarakhand health department in December last year had come up with an attractive new scheme ‘You Quote We Pay’ to overcome the shortage of specialist doctors in the state.
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Under the ‘You Quote We Pay’ scheme, the state government has decided to recruit specialist doctors through the National Health Mission (NHM) who will be paid up to ₹4 lakh monthly salary. The minimum salary would be ₹2.5 lakh.
Under the scheme, the doctors will be hired based on their merit and experience. As per requirement, they will be posted in medical health education and treatment, according to officials.
He said, “In the first round of’ You Quote, We Pay scheme’, 18 specialist doctors have been selected...Many rounds of selection are being planned to enlist more specialist doctors.”