The Uttarakhand Medical Services Selection Board (UMSSB) has extended the last date of submitting applications for medical officers. The interested candidates can now apply for the post till November 10.
The board had earlier set up October 20 as the last date to submit the application forms. The Chairman of the UMSSB, Dr DS Rawat said that the last date is being extended in view of the festival season.
The board had released recruitment advertisement for appointment of 712 medical officers for the State health services on September 6. These appointments are expected to bring a major relief to the people of the State as health services in remote and mountainous areas of the state have become virtually defunct due to absence of doctors. The recruitment notification for MO (Ordinary grade) was made in pursuance of the requisition made by the Uttarakhand Government.
Out of the 712 posts, 200 are reserved for Schedule Caste, 33 for Schedule Tribe (ST) and 154 are reserved for the Other Backward Castes (OBC). After the process of online submission of application forms the board would decide on the pattern of selection process to be adopted.
For election of suitable candidates an interview would be scheduled by the board but in case of number of application are huge in numbers against the number of vacant posts the board may decide to conduct a written screening examination before interview in form of an objective written test. The selected MO would be inducted in the pay scale of 56100-177500 (level 10).
The State health services would get a major boost if UMSSB is able to recruit these doctors in time. Acute shortage of MO in the State health services have created problems for the people and have also accelerated migration from the mountainous parts.
The health services of the State are plagued by severe shortage of medical officers. As many as 1,615 posts of MO out of sanctioned 2,711 posts are at present lying vacant. These vacant posts constitute a staggering 60 percent of the total posts. The severe shortage of doctors has rendered the entire health system of State seriously ill.
In the remote and mountainous parts of the State the situation of absence of doctors is very alarming and in almost all such places the health services are nonexistent.