Recent announcement of AP-CM Mr. Jagan Mohan Reddy order on government doctors has attracted wide attention & has gained public support & popularity.
Though this scheme is an ideal one it has following pitfalls which may even disturb the current system of health access to all. Here are those unsolicited effects which were overlooked
1) WHO recomends 1 doctor to 1500 people. We will need 6 lakhs more doctors to achieve this.( Cuba leads the world with a doctor to 155 people. Restricting doctors to work only for 8 hours means reducing the number of patients diagonised & thereby making healthcare even more challenging
2) Doctors hon their skills with exposure to more cases in their initial phases of career. Putting time restrictions constraints this. Fresh doctors may even take more time to learn & give back to the society
3) Government doctors pay package is too frugal when compared to their counterparts in the private sector. Pay of a government doctor in TN is about Rs55,000/month( not to mention about what a private doctor will earn). That too with the number of transfers he/she is subjected to in their carrier this brings no motivation for them to take this up
4) There is no pay difference for the speciality & general practitioner doctors. This will leave no motivation for doctors with specialisation to take up government jobs. Promotions & increments are based on years of service & not on merit, This would not attract the talent
Considering the above its imminent that this scheme is not going to do any good to neither doctors nor to the people of Andhra Pradesh excepting a political brownie point which will wane with the passage of time
Though this scheme is an ideal one it has following pitfalls which may even disturb the current system of health access to all. Here are those unsolicited effects which were overlooked
1) WHO recomends 1 doctor to 1500 people. We will need 6 lakhs more doctors to achieve this.( Cuba leads the world with a doctor to 155 people. Restricting doctors to work only for 8 hours means reducing the number of patients diagonised & thereby making healthcare even more challenging
2) Doctors hon their skills with exposure to more cases in their initial phases of career. Putting time restrictions constraints this. Fresh doctors may even take more time to learn & give back to the society
3) Government doctors pay package is too frugal when compared to their counterparts in the private sector. Pay of a government doctor in TN is about Rs55,000/month( not to mention about what a private doctor will earn). That too with the number of transfers he/she is subjected to in their carrier this brings no motivation for them to take this up
4) There is no pay difference for the speciality & general practitioner doctors. This will leave no motivation for doctors with specialisation to take up government jobs. Promotions & increments are based on years of service & not on merit, This would not attract the talent
Considering the above its imminent that this scheme is not going to do any good to neither doctors nor to the people of Andhra Pradesh excepting a political brownie point which will wane with the passage of time