Cuttack: Following the Odisha government's move of amending the Odisha Medical and health services rules for the recruitment of healthcare professionals, the doctors attached to SCB Medical College Hospital and VIMSAR have opposed the decision of allowing doctors from outside of Odisha to join medical services in the state.
The doctors and medicos of VIMSAR have already initiated a campaign against the move at Burla and have started collecting signatures in support of their cause.
Many of the doctors are of the view that most of the time many posts for healthcare professionals under the reserved category remain vacant. Under such circumstances, the government should give the doctors from the unreserved category the opportunity to fill up those posts rather than depending on the doctors from outside the state.
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As per a recent media report by The New Indian Express, the office-bearers of doctor and student associations of SCB MCH addressed the recent of OPSC inviting application for almost 2452 vacant post of assistant surgeons and stated that over 600 doctors are working on a contractual basis across 30 districts of the state.
Moreover, 1300 medicos are most likely to complete their horsemanship from various hospitals from within and outside the states who will also contribute to the workforce. Hence, almost 1,900 doctors from this year alone will be eligible for recruitment.
"This number of working doctors will keep on increasing, given the fact that new government hospitals have been opened across the State", they said.
However, shockingly out of the 2452 posts only 633 posts are available under the unreserved category but the number of candidates applying for it is notably higher. The number of the candidate for the unreserved category keeps on increasing with each year. Commenting on the issue that the government has taken the decision of allowing doctors outside Odisha to join hospitals in the state due to crunch in the workforce, the doctors attached to the associations clarified that the posts are remaining vacant as the posts under reserved categories are not getting filled though the number of aspirants under unreserved category remains high, reports the daily.
The SCB Junior Doctors Association suggested that if this continues then the state might have to face a serious workforce crunch under the reserved category while there will be no vacancies left under the unreserved category. Allowing the doctors from outside to join the service will increase the problem for the candidates of the unreserved category rather than solving the issue as the medicos of the state under the reserved category will have to face more competition for a limited number of posts, it said.
SCB Junior Doctors Association president Dr Rama Chandra Sahoo told The New Indian Express, " Rather than allowing doctors from outside of Odisha to preferentially join the reserved posts; it would be better if the doctors of our State from the unreserved category, be allowed to join the unfilled vacant posts in the reserved category."
Commenting on the concerns of the medicos pursuing education in the state, the president of Junior Doctor Association of VIMSAR Sayed Iqbal Hussain stated that due to the amendment, medicos currently pursuing medical education are now fearing that there might not be any vacancy for them in the state after their graduation from the medical college, adds the daily.
Currently, 1,750 MBBS students are graduating every year which will increase to 2,250 when new medical colleges are opened in Sundargarh, Puri, Talcher and Kandhamal.