The state government’s move to transfer government doctors in the hills and deploying private institutions for running its hospitals in the plains has drawn flak from doctors under the aegis of Provincial Medical Health Services (PMHS).
The government in a decision taken in June had decided to operate all the community health centres in the Dehradun district under PPP mode with private players for which proposals were also sent to the respective authorities. However, the move has not gone down well with the doctors who want the decision to be rolled back along with the cancellation of transfer orders of contractual doctors to the hills.
A doctor with the PMHS, said, “The state government is not clear whether an entire heath facility will be run by a private player or doctors from the big hospitals will only come for OPD duty. A clear-cut strategy hasn’t been formulated and we are being pushed to accept a one-sided decision. At least, our opinion should have been taken in the matter.”
Rejecting any possibility of reconsideration of the decision taken by the state government officiating DG health Dr DS Rawat, said, “We are going to follow the transfer policy order to the letter.”
Meanwhile, residents hailed the government’s decision who feel that the government should stick to its stand. “The state government has taken a good decision to improve the health facility in the state. With the move of handing over services to reputed hospitals the overall health scenario will improve. The doctors who are opposing the move should resign if they are not finding the policy acceptable,” said Gurmeet Kaur (46), a resident of Race Course.
The transferred doctors are also alleging that they have not been asked to stay in ‘inhuman and dirty accommodations’ in the hills while some of them are saying that many state government hospitals have almost gone dysfunctional after the transfers came into effect.