Resentment is simmering in the cadre of Government doctors of State Health Services on department’s move to transfer hospitals located in the plains to the private players and appoint contractual doctors in the hospitals of easily accessible areas.
The State Health Department is planning to hand over some of the hospitals located in the plain areas of the state to the private hospitals under the Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode. Similarly the department is also appointing many doctors on contract. Recently on the initiative of the State Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat the state health department is wooing the retried doctors from the army to work in the State. The department has offered an attractive remuneration to these doctors. For super specialist doctors of army, the department has decided to pay Rs 1.5 lakh per month if they agree to serve in the mountainous area while a sum of Rs 1.4 lakh for appointment in easy to access areas. Similarly the retired doctors with Post Graduate degree would be paid to Rs 1.2 lakh in the hard to access areas while a sum of Rs 1 lakh would be given if they are posted in easy to access areas. The State Government would appoint 55 retired army doctors in the hospitals of the state in the first phase. It is learnt that more than 100 retired army doctors have expressed willingness to work in the State Health Department.
The serving doctors of the state health services are however angry that the department is planning to appoint these contractual doctors in the hospitals located in the plain areas. “We welcome the state government’s move to appoint doctors retired from Army as the state is facing shortage of doctors. More than two third of the total posts of doctors are at present lying vacant. But we oppose the appointment of these doctors in the hospitals located in the Sugam (easy to access) areas. It is logical that these doctors should be appointed in the remote and mountainous locations and the doctors of state health services working for many years and posted in many hospitals should be given opportunity to work in the hospitals of their choice,’’ said the spokesperson of the Provincial Medical Health Services (PMHS), Dr Anand Shukla.
He added that the PMHS is also agitated on the tendency of the department to hand over the hospitals located in the plain areas to private players. The PMHS wants that the private players should be asked to take over the hospitals located in the remote and mountainous areas, he said.
The PMHS is planning to lodge its strong protest on these two issues.