Make 5-year rural service compulsory for Govt. quota medicos: District Minister writes to CM

Mysore/Mysuru: Karnataka has always failed to make substantial budgetary allocations to education and health sector and whatever minimum allocations that have been done, have not even been used to appoint qualified doctors, nurses and paramedical staff — the result is evident now with the State battling acute shortage of Government doctors in every district including Mysuru. Even if doctors are appointed, they are only hired on temporary basis robbing them of all perks and making them to migrate to private sector.

Most Government Hospitals in city, towns and villages across the district are grappling with shortage of doctors, nurses, paramedics and lab technicians. The problem has festered over the years, and now with a pandemic raging, it has shown the Government in extremely poor light. Result of this callousness is that patients, a majority of whom are from economically weaker sections and who depend on Government Hospitals for treatment, have to suffer.

Successive Governments have done little to bridge the shortfall of doctors and now, no doctor is forthcoming to serve Govt. Hospitals during pandemic time even if they are paid Rs. 1.5 lakh per month and Rs. 50,000 for nurses. 

To ease the problem now at the eleventh hour, Co-operation and District in-Charge Minister S.T. Somashekar has suggested to the Government that compulsory rural service of five years must be availed from medical graduates who have studied under the Government quota.

“We are not getting doctors for Rs. 1.5 lakh per month and nurses for Rs. 50,000 per month. I have written to Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa to discuss the issue in the Cabinet and introduce a clause that will be binding on students seeking admission to medical courses under the Government quota, to serve in villages for five years after completion of their studies,” District Minister Somashekar said. 

The Government spends at least Rs. 40 lakh to Rs. 50 lakh on each medical student but the State is unable to secure their services as they go to urban areas and some prefer to go abroad, he added.

The talented lot must serve in the State and brain-drain must stop, the Minister said adding that many have failed to understand that the country will be strong if villages are strong and vibrant.