Dr (Major) Madhukar postgraduate student, Patna Medical College and Hospital

Patna, June 27: Twenty-seven-year-old Priyanka Singh will complete her MD (Doctor of Medicine) degree in community medicine from Nalanda Medical College and Hospital next year. She wanted to join government services to strengthen the healthcare system. With a permanent government doctor’s job hard to come by, she has started looking for options in NGOs and organisations like Unicef so that she can serve the people of her home state.

Priyanka is not an exception. Several young doctors passing out from medical colleges in the state either move out of Bihar or start private practice in want of opportunities in the state. “What do we do? Do we have an option other than migrating to other places? Not only the service conditions here are utterly unfavourable for doctors, the state government does not even offer a chance to us to serve our own people,” Suku Verma, a young doctor who moved to Delhi this year after finishing her MS (master of surgery), said.

The state government has hardly appointed any regular doctors in the state despite severe crunch of physicians in the past few years. It is appointing doctors on contract as a temporary arrangement.

According to the National Rural Health Mission, there is need of about 15,000 doctors in the state. There are around 4,200 government medics in the state. Of them, 500 are in teaching cadre and 1,200 have been appointed on ad hoc basis. The rest are permanent doctors appointed in hospitals.

“Yet, the government is not keen on recruiting more doctors on regular basis. This shows the reality behind its superficial claims,” said Dr Ranjit Kumar, the secretary of Bihar Health Services Association, a body of doctors in the government services.

The government recently published an advertisement to appoint 1,510 regular doctors. But those just out of college would not benefit out of it because two years’ experience in rural areas is an essential criterion.

“This is ridiculous. We have been demanding regularisation of contractual doctors but instead of doing that the government took the other way of inviting applications in general knowing well that only contractual doctors would be eligible to apply. This way, they can publicise that permanent doctors are being appointed. But in reality, only the ad hoc doctors would benefit,” Kumar said.

Senior health department officials differed. They said the clause of two years’ rural experience would strengthen the health service. Those with the experience would have firm knowledge in public health. “I see it as a good criterion as doctors serving on ad hoc basis understand the commitment required in the government services. Joining on contract should be seen as a way to get into the health services permanently,” Sanjay Kumar, the health department secretary, said.

Figures reveal that the number of aspirants taking the pre-medical test has come down drastically in the state over the past few years.

Dr (Major) Madhukar, who is pursuing PG diploma in respiratory and chest diseases from Patna Medical College and Hospital, said: “Unattractive service conditions are probably the main reason behind the nosedive. The field is suddenly not that lucrative now. We spend 12-13 years after Intermediate in becoming a specialist doctor but the career prospect does not look very bright after that. For those not coming from a medical background, starting private practice is not easy.”