The Health Department of Uttarakhand is planning to recruit new doctors from the States of Odisha and Tamil Nadu to fill large number of vacant posts of medical officers in the State.

The hope of Department rests on the fact that the salary structure of doctors in Odisha is less while TN has large number of medical colleges. The Health Minister of Uttarakhand Surendra Singh Negi told The Pioneer that the State Government has set up a Medical Service Selection Board headed by former Director General (DG) of health services, Dr I S Pal to expedite the process of recruitment for the posts of medical officers in the state health services. He said that it is learnt that the doctors in Odisha are still getting salaries as per the provisions of V pay commission which makes scope for us to recruit doctors from that state as the pay structure of Uttarakhand is among the best. The minister said that the teams of the medical service board are visiting these states and it is expected that the state would get 300-400 doctors from there. He claimed that by the constitution of separate selection board the State Government intends to remove hassles and delay in the selection process. The Minister said that the board would now recruit young medicos directly from the medical colleges. The selection board is also entrusted with the task of recruiting staff of the proposed Doon medical college. 

It is worth mentioning here that more than 60 percent posts of medical officers in the state are lying vacant due to which the health service are severely hampered. The problem is more acute in hospitals located in mountainous areas. The state health department launched many schemes like guest doctor scheme, introducing Public Private Partnership (PPP) model and tying up with the private hospitals to fill gaping holes in the tottering health system of the state but all these schemes failed to have the desired the results. The department is now hoping to fill vacant posts of doctors by the help of newly constituted selection board.