Poor response to govt's plan to rope in private docs to fill vacant posts

The state government’s plans to have private doctors work in government hospitals as an aternative to filling vacancies have not materialised as doctors have not expressed interest.

Citing poor pay and lack of adequate infrastructure, not many doctors working in the private sector have not turned up to register with the Department of Health and Family Welfare.

Launched in May, doctors were asked to volunteer and enrol themselves at the District Health Officers’ officeto work at government hospitals. The previous health minister, U T Khader, had announced that the “Doctors on Call” programme intended to address the shortage of manpower in rural and semi-urban areas.

Under this, private doctors were expected to dedicate a part of their time to attend to cases at government hospitals. The programme has failed to take off.

A senior doctor from Tumakuru told DH that not a single doctor had expressed interest in enrolling for the programme in places like Tumakuru.

“The pay is very low. If they spend as much time at private hospitals, they would earn twice the amount. This is one of the reasons private doctors cite,” he said.

He added that even as districts already have a good number of specialists, it is mostly the taluk level hospitals that are found wanting. “Except for places like Koppal in north Karnataka, most districts have at least general physicians, Doctors are unwilling to go to taluk hospitals due to logistic challenges,” said the doctor.

Doctors who enrol under “Doctors on Call” get a monthly honorarium of Rs 10,000 for signing up.
Further, they are paid a certain amount for every case they attend to based on their specialisation. For instance, obstetricians and paediatricians get Rs 2,000 per institutional delivery.

  Principal Secretary for the department of health and family welfare, Shalini Rajaneesh, said that only about 10% to 20% of the doctors had expressed interest.

She added that the department was looking into the issue. “We are trying to get a feedback from several associations. We are also in talks with the Indian Medical Association,” she added.