Govt needs to come up with policy to address manpower shortage in health sector: CAG

SHILLONG, MAR 19: The state government has been asked to come up with a policy intent to address the shortage of manpower including doctors and improved quality of health care in the state.

According to the report of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) for the year ended March 2019, there was a shortage of 50 doctors including specialist in the hospitals in the state against the state’s norms while the shortfall ranged from 13 to 65 percent (87 doctors) in the test-checked district hospitals (DHs) during the period 2014-19.

The sanctioned posts of doctors were not fully filled up resulting in overall 15 per cent vacant posts against the 136 sanctioned posts in the test-checked DHs. The vacant posts of doctors were 9 percent in Shillong civil hospital and 29 percent in Nongpoh civil hospital.

“We noticed that the state government had neither enforced the bond conditions for doctors to compel them to serve in state hospitals nor had they taken positive measures to incentivize the doctors to join government service, resulting in acute shortage of general and specialist doctors in the state and the test checked districts,” the CAG said.

As regards nursing staff, based on the IPHS norms, there was a 22 percent shortage of staff nurses in the test-checked DHs.

It said that though the OPD and IPD patient load at Shillong civil hospital increased by 10,71 percent, Nongpoh civil hospital by 50.73 per cent and Jowai civil hospital by 52 percent, over the period, the sanctioned strength of the medical and para-medical staff, the department had not revised the same, putting immense pressure on the existing health systems.

Meanwhile, the CAG has recommended that keeping in view the fact that health is a state subject, the state government may come up with a policy intent to address shortfalls in the human resources for the state health sector, to improve quality of health care.

To arrest the tendency of doctors not joining the government health facilities, it said the state government needs to take stringent action to enforce the bond conditions for enforcing services of doctors in rural areas.

“The state government also needs to take positive measures such as special allowances, availability of accommodation etc, to incentivize doctors to get posted to rural/hilly areas of the state. They can enquire about such measures being taken by other states,” the CAG asserted.

By Our Reporter