STATE NOT IN PINK OF HEALTH
While moves such as introduction of biometric attendance in hospitals and opening health wellness centres in rural areas have earned govt praise, dept is still dogged by shortage of doctors
While moves such as introduction of biometric attendance in hospitals and opening wellness centres in rural areas have earned govt praise, the department is still dogged by shortage of doctors. The education department, however, has witnessed several measures to make things better.
CHANDIGARH : It is considered one of the toughest departments to run due to the pressure that lobbies and employee unions exert. But the state health department in the one-year rule of Captain Amarinder Singh-led Congress government has been successful in making a good start having made some crucial strides.
Run by Brahm Mohindra, the seniormost minister in Amarinder’s cabinet, the department took some important decisions — such as introduction of biometric attendance in hospitals to check absenteeism, especially among doctors — whose successful implementation may go a long way in sorting out basic problems the department is riddled with. The doctors have been opposing the biometric attendance system tooth and nail.
Also, the government’s decision to initiate free dialysis facilities at all district and sub-divisional hospitals, open health wellness centres in rural areas, make all blood banks online besides e-monitoring of drug stocks to check corruption at the level of civil surgeon offices also earned praise.
Since the Punjab government pays only basic salary to its employees in the first three years of their service, the departmentfailed to attract fresh blood of doctors due to meagre salaries during their contract period. Many doctors leave the job midway or were not ready to join the services in the first place.
But the department also overcame this impediment by aggressively taking up the matter with the chief minister and got permission to pay full salaries to doctors as a special case. It also claims to have recruited in 48 specialist doctors, 38 medical officers and 11 hospital administrators in the past six months.
“The authority health minister Brahm Mohindra enjoys in this government has made a huge difference. During the previous two governments, the department was run by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ministers who had less authority as compared to their counterparts from the party’s senior alliance partner Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD). Things are moving quite faster now,” a senior specialist doctor posted in Jalandhar stated.
A LONG WAY TO GO
However, the department is still a long way to go when it comes to meet the shortage of doctors with posts of 473 specialist doctors and 360 MBBS doctors lying vacant, taking a heavy toll on services at the rural level. It has failed to control the alleged loot by private hospitals — a major concern the public has been flagging from time to time.
The claims to introduce an Act to regulate the functioning of private hospitals have remained on paper only.
The number of cases of dengue was also recorded at an all-time high in 2017.
The department even started outpatient opioid-assisted treatment o provide free medicines to addicts but it is yet to work in tandem with the special task force formed to make a joint strategy to fight the drug menace.
› The previous government’s misrule had crippled the sector. Machinery worth hundreds of crores was procured without having specialists to run it. No efforts were made to recruit doctors. But in just one year, you can see the change at the grassroots level. BRAHM MOHINDRA, Punjab health minister
› The question is what has changed for the patients on the ground? The answer to this is in negative. Facilities in civil hospitals have gone down and the shortage of doctors persists. Supply of medicines has also not improved. MADAN MOHAN MITTAL, former health minister