Ruchika M Khanna
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, February 16
After failing to find doctors holding MD/MS degree, the state government today approved the hiring of post-graduate diploma holders to fill the posts of radiologist, anaesthetist, gynaecologist, psychiatrist and paediatricians in government-run hospitals. The decision was approved by the Cabinet, which met under Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today.
Anil Joshi (Local Bodies Minister) and Bikram Singh Majithia (Revenue) gave the meeting a miss, which was held after the former accused the latter’s men of assaulting his brother Raja Joshi in Tarn Taran last week.
The proposal for hiring doctors holding a diploma was approved after Health Minister Surjit Kumar Jyani admitted that Punjab had failed to hire specialists even after relaxing service conditions.
It has been learnt that the government was short of 350 specialists in various fields, including 117 in paediatrics, 25 gynaecology, 38 radiology, 57 anaesthesia and 29 in psychiatry.
Jyani told The Tribune that specialists in these fields were unwilling to join government service despite being offered incentives. “We then took the opinion of a technical advisory committee of doctors, who opined that post-graduate diploma holders (who have completed MBBS and then done two-year diploma course in a speciality field) could be hired so that the health infrastructure in the state does not suffer. Since the most affected areas were the five fields of psychiatry, gynaecology, radiology, anaesthesia and paediatrics, we have decided to hire these doctors after a walk-in interview, the dates of which will be decided soon,” he said.
For the past three years, Punjab has been trying to hire specialists, but all efforts have been in vain. In 2012, the government had relaxed the condition of minimum age for recruitment from 37 years and taken the recruitment from out of the purview of Punjab Public Service Commission by starting walk-in interviews.
The government also started offering specialists a choice of place of posting and announced additional incentives of over Rs25,000 per month in case the specialist opted for a remote area posting. At times when the process to fill the vacancies was started, the selected candidates would refuse to join duty. As a result, the number of vacancies continued to outnumber the count of applicants.
Other key decisions
Finding cure for ailing health services
Incentives fail to work
Who is eligible
A doctor with MBBS degree who has done a two-year diploma course in a particular speciality field. Earlier, the eligibility was a degree in post-graduation.
Unfilled posts
Dept Vacant
Paediatrician 117
Gynaecologist 25
Radiologist 38
Anaesthetist 57
Psychiatrist 29
4
5