Punjab's drive to recruit specialist doctors gets poor response

Karam Prakash

Patiala, November 21

The recent drive to recruit specialist doctors by the Health Department has got a poor response, especially in the core clinical departments.

Many posts remained vacant in majority of clinical departments after walk-in interviews, held last week.

In Radiology, only one candidate against 11 posts appeared in the interview, informed the Health Department. In forensic medicine, the count of candidates, who appeared for the post, were only two.

Mother and child care services, which is stated to be at the forefront of the government’s healthcare agenda, did not receive as much response as was expected. In paediatrics, 36 paediatricians (Child specialist) appeared against the total posts of 122.

Notably, many rural centres across the state have been facing acute shortage of paediatricians. Sources informed that less than 50 per cent candidates appeared for the 122 posts of anesthesiologists. Only 35 medicine specialists, against the 100 posts, appeared for the interview.

In gynaecology, 45 candidates appeared for the interview against 100 posts.

As per the government norms, a block should have at least four specialists, including a general physician, gynaecologist, paediatrician and general surgeon.

One of the health experts, commenting on the poor response of specialist doctors, said, “Specialist doctors, instead of working in the rural areas with insufficient facilities, want to work in multispecialty set ups in big cities. Besides, low pay scales also keep specialist doctors away from the government sector.”

Another interviewer in the recruitment process, said, “Now, we have to see how many candidates, who have appeared and got selected, will join the department. In the past, specialist doctors have left the department after being in job for a while, obviously owing to various issues.”

Dr Ranjit Singh, Director, Health Department, said, “The response is not up to the mark. We got poor response in a few core departments. We will again hold a walk-in interview to fill the vacant posts.”