Just 400 doctors of the selected 921 sign up for rural health services

The innovative approach of J&K government to fill 1000 posts of medical officers and redress doctor shortage in rural areas has failed, as only 400 medical officers of the selected 921 have joined their places of posting. The rest preferred not to join rural services.

In November 2018, State government announced that 1000 postsof medical officers in health and family welfare department would be filled inone month. Major changes were made in the recruitment process to expedite thepace and resultantly, written test – replacing interviews – was concluded inrecord time. Although 921 medical officers were appointed in January this year,till date not even half of these doctors have joined places of posting.

   

As per a source in health department, less than 400 of theselected 921 doctors have joined at their respective places of posting. He saidthe low joining percentage reflected lack of interest in these jobs.Consequently, Govt cancelled appointment of 437 selectees recently.

The prime reason for disinterest in serving in rural areas,an official in health and medical education department was Government’s failureto incentivise rural service. “Instead of giving perks and monetary benefitsfor rural and difficult area service, we extended controversial SRO 202 todoctors this time,” the official said.

This SRO does not allow dearness allowances, increments andother emoluments during the period of probation. During the probation period,the selectees are paid fixed “minimum of scale pay” applicable to the post. Theappointees under SRO 202 cannot be transferred either. The SRO had never beenimplemented in case of a gazette post before, and many aspirants, whenGovernment decided to bring the medical officer posts under its ambit, termedthe decision a “measure to punish” doctors who choose to serve in anunder-served area.

In addition, the lack of basic living amenities in healthcenters across peripheral areas is also proving a dampener for aspirants. Asper rural health statistics report, less than 50 percent of community healthcenters (CHC) and sub-district hospitals (SDH) in J&K, had living quartersfor doctors. At primary health center level, the situation was even worse. Inaddition, at least one in four of primary health centers in the State haveneither water supply, nor electricity. In most health centers in peripheralareas, there is not even a toilet for staff, as per this damning reportpublished in 2018.

Commissioner secretary health and medical education AtalDulloo acknowledged that SRO 202 was “a new thing” but said that theterms and conditions had been laid down in advertisement. He said that lack ofbasic amenities was an issue but “not the cause” for selectees notjoining. “Most of those who did not join were engaged elsewhere and thuscould not join as we did not allow that,” he said.

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