Pvt specialists to help tide over staff crisis in govt hospitals

The State gover­n­ment is ready to avail the services of gynaecologists, paediatricians and anaesthetists working in private hospitals for government hospitals, by paying them an honorarium of Rs one lakh per month, said U T Khader, Minister for Health and Family Welfare.

Addressing a press conference here on Wednesday, he said that there was a severe shortage of these specialists in several government hospitals. Their services would be availed until full-time doctors are appointed. The honorarium would be paid to the specialists under the provisions of the National Rural Health Mission, he said and added that the Health department had also decided to avail the services of doctors who have retired from government services.

Khader said the chief minister would launch ‘Danta Bhagya’ scheme on December 6, under which free dentures will be provided to Below Poverty Line card holders above 60 years of age. As many as 45 private and government dental colleges have been roped in to implement the scheme. Asha workers have been entrusted with the responsibility of linking beneficiaries to the colleges for dental care.

Khader said dialysis centres would be opened in one taluk in each of the 30 districts. The project would be launched on December 6 and the centres would be opened in a phased manner. Show-cause notice have been issued on two postgraduate doctors for not withdrawing resignations they had submitted, during the doctors’ strike in November.

The doctors had secured post-graduation admission after an undertaking that they will put in 10 years’ of service in government hospitals, he added.