Disillusioned by the lack of dignified salaries and service rules, young doctors in Himachal Pradesh seem to be losing interest in joining the state health services.
What makes this evident is the recent recruitment drive of the Himachal Pradesh government, where 165 Trainee Medical Officers (MOs) were selected through a tedious process of screening, written exam and interview by the Himachal Pradesh Public Service Commission (HPPSC). Out of them, 25 doctors have reportedly not joined the service in the stipulated period, following which the health department has now decided to approach the HPPSC again for sending names of candidates from the waiting list.
Many of those who joined as trainee MOs are also resentful of the government’s decision to not consider their rural/tribal posting during “trainee” period for merit in the state’s General Duty Officer (GDO) quota for Master’s degree after the NEET PG examination, for which they are eligible after two years.
It is possibly for the first time that doctors have not expressed interest in joining health services after getting appointment letters. A newly recruited Trainee Medical Officer, as the state government calls them now as per the new policy, gets a salary of Rs 33,600 per month till two years with some allowances for tribal and rural postings. Compared to this, medical officers in other states get a starting monthly salary ranging from Rs 80,000 to Rs 1 lakh.
The salary of newly recruited doctors was in fact lowered in Himachal when the Congress government took over by withdrawing the non-practising allowance (NPA) of doctors, citing financial constraint. The government did it smartly as it continued to pay NPA to serving doctors, but snatched it from future appointees. This was the reason why the State Medical Officers Association was mum over the issue.
More so, the state government has now decided that all the employees, including different categories of doctors, will be regularised after two years of service once in a year, on March 31. Earlier, they used to be regularised on September 30 and then March 31, reducing the gap. So, for those getting appointment letters in April, it would take three years for them to be regularised.
The cadre of doctors in the state health department is 3,020, out of which 380 posts are vacant. If the number of doctors doing PG in service is also considered, the vacancies in the department go up to around 700.
Medical colleges in Himachal also face similar problems. There are six government-run medical colleges in the state and one private medical college. The stipend for students doing a direct PG degree in state medical colleges is very low as compared to other states. It is Rs 40,000, Rs 45000 and Rs 50,000 per month respectively in first, second and third year in HP medical colleges. After PG, they have to serve a bond of two years with posting as medical officers at Rs 33,600 per month. The bond money is Rs 40 lakh.
Upset over this, many doctors are resigning from state health services immediately after completing their bonds following their post-graduation from Himachal Pradesh medical colleges. Some others have not opted for stipend during the PG so that they don’t have to serve the bond of two years, which again is a tight situation for any doctor serving in the medical college hospital 24X7 during PG. It is learnt that the government is now making stipend compulsory to compulsorily bind the doctors. It is also refusing to accept their resignations, citing “shortage of doctors”.
“The government can bring the costliest machinery to hospitals, but don't have money to pay the doctors. We would rather do PG outside our home state,” said some fresh MBBS passouts.
“It is ridiculous. A MBBS doctor from Telangana came to one of the medical colleges in Himachal Pradesh for MD. She got very less stipend as compared to other states,” said a medical college teacher.
The waning interest of doctors to serve Himachal Pradesh, which was once considered the best in health services, does not augur well for the state in the long run, especially as 70 per cent of the people in HP depend on government health institutions.
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