The much hyped guest doctor scheme of the State Government has failed to take off as not even a single doctor till date has shown interest to serve in Uttarakhand.
In an attempt to deploy specialist doctors in the remote and mountainous parts of the State, the medical health and family welfare department had formulated the guest doctor scheme for those who are visiting the State on personal or religious tours.The scheme was launched in October but probably in absence of proper publicity, this scheme has failed.The Director Medical and Health Dr l K Gusain told The Pioneer that the scheme is very good and would yield results in near future.
He was of the view that guest doctors would show interest in the scheme once the summer season and yatra season starts.The department sources however revealed that the scheme despite being attractive has failed due to lack of interest of the senior officers and paucity of funds for publicity. Under the scheme, the department was planning to rope in doctors who are planning to visit the State for religious, tourism or personal purposes.
These specialist doctors are required to visit the State at least for a two weeks during which they have to give at least 4 days in a week at designated health care centres.The department will bear the cost of travelling, boarding and lodging of these doctors in addition to this a remuneration of Rs1000 per day would be offered to these specialists.
It is worth mentioning here that there is a huge gap in the requirement and availability of specialist doctors in the State.The departmental data suggests that out of 126 sanctioned posts of surgeons, 84 are lying vacant; similarly 99 posts of physicians, 57 posts of orthopedic surgeons, 98 posts of radiologists, 86 posts of pathologists, 110 posts of gynaecologists, 37 posts of cardiologists and 30 posts of dermatologists are lying vacant.
To add to the woes of the department, a majority of these specialist doctors are posted in the districts like Dehradun and Haridwar.Health services in the mountainous parts are virtually non existent due to lack of doctors. The medical health and family welfare department in the past had launched a number of schemes to attract doctors but lack of practical approach and lackadaisical attitude of senior officers ensure that most of these scheme fail to meet their objective.