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Closure of Maharashtra’s child health programme could affect 2,000 doctors on contract
Also known as the Child Health Screening and Early Intervention programme, Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram was launched in 2013 and focuses on childcare
More than 2,000 doctors working on contract under the National Health Mission’s Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram (RBSK) in Maharashtra are worried about losing their jobs as the state government has decided to close the programme as it exists presently.
Also known as the Child Health Screening and Early Intervention programme, Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram was launched in 2013 and focuses on childcare. Surveys and screening tests for children between 0 and 18 years of age are conducted twice a year under this programme in Maharashtra.
According to state health department officials, as per central ministry’s new scheme, health and wellness centres need to be established across the country.
“All these centres will provide inclusive healthcare, including yoga, cardiac, child care and pharma under one roof. Since Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram will be a duplication of the same, the state of Maharashtra has planned to drop Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram from its charts,” said Dr Pradeep Vyas (IAS), principal secretary, state health department.
According to him, the new centres will be well-equipped to carry out all possible healthcare which will cover the entire population. “Hence, we see no need for the continuation of RBSK,” he said.
Doctors under the Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram programme have written to the central ministry complaining that instead of regularising them and paying their remuneration, the state of Maharashtra ‘is messing up the programme’. The letter by the Maharashtra RBSK Doctors Union was sent on July 18 to the National Health Mission’s director and other top officials in health ministry.
Dr Vyas said, “The doctors of Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram are on contractual basis with us, while we will be hiring new BAMS doctors for health and wellness centres. They will be available 24x7 in every centre, be it in rural areas or tribal zones. It was observed that many doctors under Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram are placed in civil hospitals and often refuse to work in rural areas, which is a big problem. Hence, looking at this obvious condition, we plan to act upon our discussions soon.”
Early this week, a meeting was held between state health minister Eknath Shinde, AK Yadav, commissioner of National Health Mission in Maharashtra, and RBSK medical doctors in Mumbai.
About the RBSK doctors losing their jobs, Dr Vyas said, “We have given them a choice to apply for other positions vacant in the public health department. If selected, they will be accommodated. Those left can apply elsewhere, as they are on contractual basis which is for 11 months.”
Medical body claims state destroying RBSK programme
Dr Pranali Vetal, state president for Doctors of RBSK and Employee’s Association of Maharashtra state (Dreams) accused the state government of destroying the RBSK programme. She said that new employees recruited for the health and wellness centres were being paid more than the RBSK doctors who had been in employment for more than 10 years. “This is injustice,” she said, adding that there was also the fear of 2,300 doctors losing their jobs.
According to her, in the remote and backward district of Chandrapur, the RBSK doctors conducted 2,368 paediatric surgeries between 2013 and 2018. In the last three years, they performed 4,178 cardiac surgeries in children who were picked up early by the RBSK doctors, she said.
“The RBSK doctors have not only helped reduce morbidity rate in the state, but have also helped in curbing mortality rate in children. This is all because of regular screening and finding children who need immediate intervention. They cannot shut the programme haphazardly,” she said.
Dr Dinesh Gharge, an RBSK doctor, said, “Shutting down a national programme run by the central ministry in the state may cost the state majorly. Without the permission of the central health ministry they cannot do so.”
RBSK doctors said more than two crore children were being screened every year in rural areas under the programme.