PNS | DEHRADUN
The decision of the State government to raise the retirement age of the specialist doctors from the existing 60 years to 65 years is yet another attempt by the government to sort out the issue of acute shortage of the specialist doctors in the State health services. In recent years, the State has been able to fill the vacant posts of doctors in the Health department by holding a series of recruitment drives, walk-in interviews and entering into a bond with the undergraduate students in some medical colleges of the State. However the paucity of specialist doctors is continuing despite various efforts of the State government.
There are 1,147 posts of specialist doctors in various disciplines in the health services but 654 of the posts are vacant.
The State health services has 149 posts of physicians but only 32 of them are filled. Similarly 28 out of 32 posts of dermatologists are vacant in the health services. There are 145 posts of anaesthesia specialists and 155 posts of child specialists in the health services but 83 posts of anaesthetists and 91 child specialists are vacant. The data shows that the problem of shortage of specialists is more profound in mountainous districts. For example only 10 posts of specialists are vacant in Dehradun out of 127 posts while in Pauri 110 posts are vacant out of the sanctioned 152 posts.
In the last few years, the Health department undertook many steps to fill the vacant posts of specialist doctors. However the specialist doctors preferred to serve in the private hospitals and nursing homes than join the State health services. Walk in interviews and ‘you quote we pay’ schemes also failed to attract the specialists in the health services. The experts opine that increasing the retirement age of specialist doctors is a good attempt by the government under chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami and it is likely to yield positive results.
Under the scheme, the superannuating specialist doctors will be offered an extension of five years if they agree to serve in the government hospitals. One senior doctor slated to retire this year told The Pioneer that he will prefer to work in the hospitals as consultant than retiring from the service.
The Health secretary R Rajesh Kumar said that the decision will benefit 550 specialist doctors of the State health services and will help in removing the shortage of specialist doctors in the state health services.
