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Punjab not finding doctors, minister blames it on better pay in pvt sector
The Punjab health department is short of 745 doctors, including 425 specialists and 320 medical officers.
The Punjab health department is short of 745 doctors, including 425 specialists and 320 medical officers.
The figure is 18% of the 4,144 sanctioned posts of doctor, and the most severe shortage is of paediatricians, anaesthetists and radiologists, with more than 50% posts of these specialists vacant in the state. Acknowledging the shortage at a press conference here, Punjab health minister Surjit Kumar Jyani blamed it on private healthcare sector’s offering “higher salaries”. He also accepted that a large number of medical officers appointed from walk-in interviews did not join “for want of better pay”.
Replying to a question, the minister said paying only the basic salary (Rs 15,600) to the medical officers hired in walk-in interviews was “a collective decision of the cabinet”, clarifying there was no review. Jyani, however, said all 320 posts of medical officer would be filled by March 31, 2016.
He said the state was doing well on may health parameters. “Punjab’s infant mortality rate (IMR) is 26 to the national average of 40; and its maternal mortality rate (MMR) is 141 against the country’s 167. In the 2013 count, the IMR declined from 34 in 2010, while the MMR improved from 172 in 2009.
The health minister said Homi Bhabha Cancer Hospital at Sangrur had started functioning, while the cancer hospital in Bathinda would also become fully operational by the end of 2016. Jyani clarified that the ‘Bhagat Puran Singh ‘sehat bima yojana’ (health insurance scheme for the below-poverty-line families) contined with Rs 50,000 cashless-treatment offer in empanelled hospitals in all districts.
“The registration of blue card holders is on and smart cards are being issued for insurance cover of Rs 5 lakh for the head of each blue-card-holder family, in case of death or incapacitation in accident,” the minister said. He said the state now aimed at creating tertiary-level facilities at five model drug de-addiction centres (Jalandhar, Patiala, Bathinda, Amritsar, and Faridkot) that had 50 beds already.
The district-level de-addiction and rehabilitation societies under the control of respective deputy commissioners will manage these centres, where the required staff, mainly the male nurses and ward attendants, was being recruited. Jyani said the major infrastructure upgrade would come to 17 rehabilitation centres with an outlay of Rs 86 crore, besides to 23 healthcare kiosks in urban slums and 17 diagnostic centres in different hospitals.
