Health dept paves way for new cadre to woo specialist doctors

LOW RESPONSE TO RECRUITMENT

PUNJAB

CHANDIGARH : With the Punjab health department’s efforts to recruit specialist doctors through walk-in interview not yielding results, the department is mulling to form a special cadre to offer more security to them in government job.

An in-principal decision to start working on forming the special cadre has been taken at the department level and the experts of the health department have been asked to take into consideration perks and salaries being offered in other states as well.

The decision to change strategy to hire specialist doctors has been taken as only 592 have applied for the job against 634 posts. The interviews to recruit specialists would end on November 17.

According to an official privy to the interview drive, there have been a few specialisations such as orthopaedics, ear nose throat (ENT) and pathology for which the response is good and three to four candidates have appeared for the interview for one post. However, the department has received a poor response for gynaecology, paediatrics and anaesthesia, whose demand is high at the sub-divisional level.

The posts for which the interviews are underway are general surgery (103), gynaecology (78), paediatrics (100), anaesthesia (122), orthopaedics (75), radiology (11), ENT (31), ophthalmology (16), skin and VD (24), psychiatry (10), chest and TB (6), pathology (12), microbiology (5), community medicine (4), BTO (9) and forensic (12).

State civil medical services association president Dr Akhil Sarin says the reason behind low response is that specialists in Punjab are being offered comparatively low pay packages. “The current entry level pay scales (₹53,100/- basic pay) in Punjab are way lower than the central pay scales (₹67,100). Even Haryana has an entry level pay which is higher than Punjab (₹56,100/- basic pay),” said Dr Sarin.

He said, secondly a meagre higher education/pg allowance, which currently accounts for a paltry 2% difference in the salary of specialists and MBBS doctors, is another major dissuading factor and needs immediate rationalisation as per the revised basic pay in line with the 6th CPC.

Director health services, Punjab, Dr Ranjit Singh Gohtra admitted that response to recruit the specialist medical officers has not been enthusiastic. “The department is planning to have a different cadre for specialist medical officers. The proposal is being discussed at the department level,” said Gohtra.

There have been instances where specialist doctors hired in previous walk-in interviews left the job as they found better opportunities in the private sector. “Some states have been hiring specialists by negotiating salaries as well. We are discussing all prospects to make our recruitment stable,” said Gohtra.

Specialist medical officers are being hired in the pay scale of ₹53,100 plus non-practicing allowance, dearness allowance, house rent and other admissible allowances. According to a senior doctor, a specialist medical officer draws between ₹80,000 and ₹82,000 per month.

DECISION TO CHANGE STRATEGY TO HIRE SPECIALIST DOCTORS HAS BEEN TAKEN AS ONLY 592 HAVE APPLIED FOR THE JOB AGAINST 634 POSTS