[Assam] Wanted doctors and nurses in rural Assam

[Ram Sarangapani]

  Docs walk in to grab govt job[image: Add to
Clippings]<javascript:clippopup(1612076);>

IANS[ SUNDAY, JUNE 04, 2006 12:00:00 AM] "I visited the Guwahati Medical
College (GMC) today and was really disappointed to find a majority of the
doctors absent," Sarma said.  - Health Minister,  Assam

Is that all a powerful minister can do? How about some corrective measures?

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1612076.cms
     GUWAHATI: If one is a doctor aged below 65 years, a government job in
Assam is assured - just walk in to an interview next week and get the
appointment letter on the spot.

But there is a catch. The new recruits must serve in Assam's rural areas.

"Anybody with a medical degree can just walk in for an interview on
Wednesday and Thursday and get a job. We have about 234 vacancies across the
state and all these recruits will be posted in rural health centres," Assam
Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma told reporters here.

Due to the lukewarm response from doctors for government jobs, health
authorities will welcome retired medical practitioners for the interview.

"A retired doctor, if willing to serve in a rural area, will be paid a
consolidated salary of Rs.15,000 a month, besides their pension benefits,"
the minister said.

"We hope to get at least 100 young doctors for the interview and the
remaining vacancies can well be filled up with retired medical
practitioners."

The new recruitment drive has been necessitated with the rural healthcare
sector in Assam in the doldrums with doctors not willing to serve in the
interiors.

"We have to do something drastic to improve the healthcare system,
especially in rural areas," Sarma said.

Doctors apart, there is a severe shortage of nurses and paramedics.

"We require about 1,200 nurses and in the next two months we are going to
fill these vacancies," he said.

"Shortage of nurses in Assam has severely impeded immunisation programmes in
the past few years."

Coming down heavily on specialist government doctors ignoring their normal
duties and devoting more time in private nursing homes, the minister said
such acts would not be tolerated.

"I visited the Guwahati Medical College (GMC) today and was really
disappointed to find a majority of the doctors absent," Sarma said.

He has initiated action against at least a dozen senior doctors at the GMC
for neglecting duty.
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