Health and Family Welfare Minister Dhani Ram Shandil today said that disciplinary action would be taken against doctors and other staff members who did not obey the government directives regarding their transfer to remote and difficult areas.
The minister was replying to a cut motion on the Health Department in the Vidhan Sabha here. He said, “I will like to make it amply clear that action will be taken against doctors, who do not obey the orders for their transfer to remote rural areas that are facing huge vacancies.” They would have to join the place of posting for the stipulated period or face action, he added.
Shandil said that the burden on referral institutions would reduce only when the health facilities in hospitals in rural and far-flung areas were strengthened. “We are making efforts to improve the quality of healthcare but it cannot happen overnight. Efforts are on to recruit specialists and MBBS doctors to reduce vacancies,” he added.
The minister said that it was with futuristic planning to provide the latest technology for treatment that the state government would start robotic surgery facilities in a phased manner at Tanda medical college and Chamiyana super specialty hospital, Shimla. “A sum of Rs 300 crore has been released for strengthening health facilities at the two medical colleges at Chamba and Hamirpur and Rs 85 crore for setting up a cancer centre at Hamirpur,” he added.
Shandil said that Rs 20.73 crore had been released for the setting up of a PET scan facility at the Indira Gandhi Medical College (IGMC) and Hospital in Shimla and it would start within the next three months. Also, Rs 105 crore had been released for the purchase of three Tesla MRI machines to provide latest medical equipment at hospitals, he added.
He said that CT scan facilities were being installed in the public, private partnership (PPP) mode at 34 health institutes, 54 physiotherapy centres were being set up and dialysis facilities were being started at 22 health institutions in the near future.
The Health Minister said that Rs 1 crore each had been sanctioned for Adarsh swasthya sansthans to be set up in all 68 Assembly segments. He added that Rs 139 crore had been given under the Sahara scheme, benefiting 34,000 persons, besides adding 12,000 new eligible candidates.
Shandil said that efforts were being made to accommodate outsourced employees, who had worked during the Covid pandemic. Vipin Parmar, Balbir Verma, Vinod Kumar, Janak Raj and Daleep Thakur participated in the debate. All MLAs raised the issue of the vacancies of doctor and paramedical staff, especially in rural and far-flung areas. They demanded that the services of outsourced employees in the Health Department, who had done a commendable job during the Covid pandemic, should not be discontinued.
Meanwhile, the cut motion fell through as Speaker Kuldeep Pathania put it to voice vote after the BJP members refused to withdraw it.
