Guwahati, April 6: A visit to an outpatient department will no longer cost a morning’s work and day’s pay for the daily wage earner.

A hundred and fifty government hospitals across Assam will open their outpatient departments for three hours in the evening from next month — a move planned by Dispur to increase accessibility of healthcare facilities among labourers.

To remain open between 5pm and 8pm from May 4, the night outpatient department will be served by both government and private doctors.

Though the modalities are still being worked out, sources in the health department said a duty roster is being planned for government doctors. A panel of private doctors would be on call if government doctors were unavailable.

Sources said there would not be a dearth of government doctors since Dispur was offering good “cash incentives” for the job.

For an evening at the outpatient department, an MBBS degree holder will receive Rs 300, a specialist doctor Rs 500 and support staff Rs 100, which works out to 15,000, Rs 9,000 and Rs 3,000 respectively each month.

The endeavour is estimated to cost Dispur Rs 15 crore annually.

Health minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said the initiative was a pilot project and gradually all the 700-odd hospitals in the state would come under its ambit.

“It has been prompted by the need to cater to the self-employed and the daily wagers, most of whom avoid visiting the day OPD till their condition becomes acute, fearing loss of time and man days.”

The day OPD functions from 9am to 3pm.

To ensure that doctors are available and the services offered are similar to the day OPD, the government will provide incentives to the superintendents of hospitals, directors and joint directors of the health department.

The doctors, however, are not suitably excited about the “incentives”.

Three hours of private practice in the evening would fetch anything between Rs 4,550 and Rs 5,000 for senior doctors.

Now with the night outpatient department duties, doctors will have little time left for private practice.

“The amount they earn in private practice is much higher than the incentives being offered,” a source said.

Sarma also announced that three institutes for paramedics offering diploma courses in 12 subjects would be set up at the Gauhati, Dibrugarh and Silchar medical colleges during the 2008 academic session.

The health minister said the initiative would see Assam join the league of Kerala in turning out expert paramedics who could not only work everywhere in India but abroad.