In the Medical health department of the State, there are plenty of directors, but comparatively few doctors. Uttarakhand has 170 directors in the offices of health department, while only 460 medical officers are in the field to serve the patients in a State which suffers from chronic shortage of doctors in its mountainous and rural regions.
There are 128 joint directors, 35 additional directors, six directors and one director general in the medical Health department of the State. Interestingly, all these directors are actually qualified senior doctors who are conveniently stationed at many offices and are working as babus. These senior doctors have shed their stethoscopes and are holding the pen with glee.
Uttarakhand inherited the structure of its health services from the mother State of Uttar Pradesh, but after the creation of the State, many new posts were created in the health services so that the senior doctors could be accommodated in the Capital and other cities. Instead of creating a proper infrastructure of health services in the State, the politicians and the bureaucrats created a mammoth system to favour the senior doctors who do not want to work in the field which can involve postings in remote areas and are happy to work in the directorate at Dehradun.
The old timers of Health department recall that before the creation of Uttarakhand more doctors were available in the mountainous areas. "At that time directors were in lucknow and doctors in the hospitals but now the situation has reversed," said a retired Government doctor not wanting to be named. It is interesting to note that when the new State was created in 2000, there were only two directors, while there are six directors now. Similarly, there were six additional directors at the time of State formation against the 35 now and only 28 joint directors then against the 160 sanctioned posts now. This shows how the system was molded for petty personal interests.
The six directors are Director Medical health, Director Kumaon Division, Director Garhwal Division, Director Budget Plan and Stores, Director National Programme and Director Medical Education. These directors control an army of additional directors, joint directors and Chief Medical Officers (CMO) who are busy doing the work which a clerk can also do. A retired Government doctor wanting to remain anonymous told this correspondent that since the state is facing acute shortage of medical officers- 1482 posts of Medical Officers are vacant which constitute 75 per cent of total sanctioned posts — there is no need of having so many directors considering the fact that they are actually highly qualified senior doctors and the state can use their services in hospitals. He said that a strong political will is needed to treat the highly diseased health services of the State.