Doctors will get incentives to serve rural India
After many failed attempts to get skilled medical personnel for insurgency-affected and remote areas, the Indian government has announced plans to give doctors high financial incentives. The proposed move is expected to help the poor receive immediate and quality healthcare.
New Delhi: As part of monetary incentive to encourage medical personnel to take up rural postings, doctors, specialists and para-medical staff serving in the rural, particularly far-flung and inaccessible areas, will get double the salary their counterparts in other areas earn.
- A doctor with a village woman/ Photo credit: Hand in Hand
Announcing this as part of the Health and Family Welfare Ministry’s 100-day agenda, Union Health and Family Welfare Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad said these incentives would encourage medical personnel to serve the poor and needy people.
The Ministry, through the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM), will make funds available for contractual appointments and provide significantly higher monetary incentives based on the location of the posting. The salaries could be almost double those drawn by medical professionals in urban areas, Azad said.
In the next three months, the Ministry, in consultation with State governments, will identify difficult, most difficult and inaccessible areas, particularly in the hilly States and tribal regions. This will be done to fill up deficiencies in the strength of medical personnel, the Minister said.
Web-based system
A web-based Health Management Information System (HMIS) will be fully operational by July 31, 2009, to enable district-wise reporting of the progress of the NRHM on a monthly, quarterly and annual basis.
This will enable timely monitoring of physical and financial progress more effectively, he said. The Ministry has also made a commitment to revive the three public sector vaccine manufacturing units at Kasauli, Guindy and Coonoor whose manufacturing licenses were suspended last year for failure to comply with the good manufacturing practices (GMP) prescribed by the World Health Organisation.
An oversight committee has prepared a road map for revamping the vaccine manufacturing facility at the Central Research Institute, Kasauli.
The retrofitted facility will start functioning within a year, while the process for the revival of the B.C.G Vaccine Laboratory at Guindy and the Pasteur Institute of India at Coonoor will be initiated, Azad said.
The Ministry will also initiate a proposal to introduce a Bill to comprehensively amend the Transplantation of Human Organs Act, 1994 to make the process of organ transplantation less cumbersome for genuine cases and also network all transplantation centres for better coordination and utilisation of harvested organs.
The remotest mountainous terrain or parts of the Naxalite-infested Red Corridor are places where doctors fear to tread.
While 25% hike will be given to those posted in difficult areas, 50% hike is for those areas that are almost unreachable by road.
The most difficult areas have been identified as Naxal-affected districts of Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar, remote areas in the North-East, interiors of Jammu and Kashmir, the Thar Desert stretch of Rajasthan, Lakshwadeep and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
"One the regulation or the compulsion to serve in rural areas more than monetary incentives we find the incentive for an admission to a post-graduate course seems to work quite effectively in getting doctors in rural areas," Ministry of Health Joint Secretary Amarjeet Sinha.
Different states have also been asked to grant incentives based on their specific requirements.
Specialists in the Andaman and Nicobar islands are being hired on a contract basis for a starting salary of Rs 55,000 per month.
In Madhya Pradesh paediatricians are being promised a start of Rs 35,000 per month while Chhattisgarh and Bihar governments have pledged assured housing for doctors.
In Assam and Kerala, doctors are being paid 50 per cent more salary for running evening OPDs in the public health centres.
The incentives are in addition to almost all states making rural posting compulsory for MBBS students seeking admission into a post-graduate programme.
The heath ministry is leaving no stones unturned in its bid to woo doctors for rural postings.
The National Rural Health Mission has figured prominently on the Prime Minister's 100-day agenda and incentives proposed are sure to make a difference on the ground.
