Due to the shortage of doctors in the mountainous districts of Uttarakhand, the primary health centre and district hospital are in a bad condition which is causing severe inconvenience to the locals seeking medical treatment. Pauri is the regional headquarters of Garhwal but the majority of the sanctioned posts of doctors and related staff are lying vacant here.
The general opinion is that the government has no specific transfer policy and government doesn’t want to frame a policy to ensure that doctors work in remote mountainous regions of the State. While there is said to be no shortage of doctors in Dehradun, Haridwar and Udham Singh Nagar districts in the plains, only a few doctors are ready to work in the remote mountainous regions.
Pauri Chief Medical Officer Dr AK Singh said that under the preview of CMO, only 34 doctors are presently working while 119 of the 153 sanctioned posts are lying vacant. Only four out of 36 posts of specialist doctors are occupied at present. He said that 22 contractual doctors including 11 female doctors were appointed to district, but none has joined duty yet.
The condition of Pauri district hospitals and joint hospital at Srinagar Garhwal is bad but in Kotdwar, the hometown of the Health Minister, the condition of the joint hospital is satisfactory. In Kotdwar joint hospital 16 of the 20 sanctioned posts of doctors are occupied. Surprisingly two pathologists are working in Kotdwar while the District hospital has been facing problems caused by absence of pathologist.
In Srinagar joint hospital only five of the 11 sanctioned posts of doctors are occupied. Chief Medical Superintendent Dr Savatri Uniyal said that in District Hospital Pauri only eight doctors are working and nine posts are still vacant, while in District women hospital Pauri, only two of the nine sanctioned posts of doctors are occupied while one has been absent without leave for a long time. Her absence has been reported to the government regarding her absence. She said that one post each of radiologist, pathologist, physician, ENT specialist, cardiologist, eye surgeon, dermatologist and two posts of EMO are vacant. Dr Uniyal said that she had demanded a radiologist and technician to start the CT scan machine but the government has not done the needful yet.The CT scan machine was installed on June 17 at a cost of Rs 1.89 crore.