The Medical Health and Family Welfare department of Uttarakhand is facing a daunting task of shifting ‘heavyweight doctors’ from comfort of cities to remote locations. The clout of these doctors is such that the transfers which were scheduled to be completed by June 15 are being inordinately delayed. The department had asked Chief Medical Officers (CMO) of all the districts to send it the list of the doctors who are stationed in hospitals for long but despite several reminders the lists are yet to arrive at health directorate.
It is pertinent to mention here that the department is trying to implement a transfer’s policy in the department where favoritism rules roost in the matter of postings. Ironically the transfers in the past have always resulted in further depletion in the number of doctors deployed in hospitals located in mountainous areas. “Every time the transfers are done, those who are posted from cities to mountainous areas manage to revert the transfer orders by hook or crook causing further reduction in doctors number” opined one of a medical expert. This expert further pointed out that ‘heavyweights’ are managing to delay the transfer process this year also.
When contacted the Director General (DG) of Medical, health and family welfare department, Dr R P Bhatt told The Pioneer that he is committed to implement the transfer policy in letter and spirit. He accepted that delay has occurred in the process but reiterated that he would not allow it to delay it further. Dr Bhatt said that he has asked his office to prepare a list of doctors who are stationed for more than 10 years in one location without delay. He accepted that given the acute shortage of doctors in the state health services less than 200 doctors could be shifted by implementing the 20 percent criteria of total strength for transfers. It is worth mentioning here that only 749 doctors are working in State health services against sanctioned posts of 2507.The DG said that optimum utilization of available resources would be done to ensure that the number of doctors posted in mountainous areas is increased.