Hyderabad, November 17: With corporate hospitals offering meagre salaries and promising little career growth, doctors it seems are now desperate to return to government service, if the response to recruitment of doctors in government hospitals is any indication.
The health department received a whopping 8,000 applications for 981 posts in government hospitals in rural and remote areas. The government is filling about 1,200 doctor posts with medical graduates, including 981 posts in rural areas as part of major health reforms proposed over the next two-three years for providing better healthcare to public.
The reason behind the mad rush to join public service is said to be job security and handsome pay package. Unlike earlier times when corporate hospitals lured young medicos with attractive pay packets, most of the hospitals are now paying salaries ranging from `8,000 to `13,000 per month to medical graduates.
The state government, on the other hand, is offering an initial monthly salary of `22,000, including provident fund, leave travel concession, house rent allowance and dearness allowance for working in rural areas. Young medicos, who don’t have any family compulsions to stay in cities, can work in villages and earn experience in treating patients with ailments exclusive to rural areas which they can’t get in corporate hospitals.
Further, government doctors will get about 30 per cent reservation in about 1,300 PG medical seats available in the State. For those who can’t get a seat in PG entrance, the government has decided to conduct a diploma course in Public Health spending `10 lakh on each doctor which improves their career prospects.
After working for two-three years, most of these doctors are transferred from the Primary Health Centres (PHCs) to Community Healthcare Centres (CHCs) or Area Hospitals (AHs). “As most of these young medicos are unmarried, they will not find it difficult to work in rural areas.
It will give them good exposure,” said PV Ramesh, principal secretary for Health.
However, those working in corporate sector from initial days have no exposure to all types of patients and have difficulty in cracking PG entrance examination.
The doctors in the corporate sector can earn a decent salary of `35,000 only after post-graduation.
The State government is also opening doors to specialist doctors. It initiated a process for recruiting about 560 specialist doctors in existing vacancies and also shifting another 450 specialists working in PHCs to CHCs/Area Hospitals and District Hospitals as part of rationalisation.
The merit list will be released in three-four days and recruitment will be completed in a month. Another 950 specialists are being posted to about 117 Area Hospitals, including 59 CHCs being upgraded as Area Hospitals in the State.
–Agencies