Doctors will be appointed on a regular and contractual basis. A Telegraph file picture

Jamshedpur, Sept. 12: The state government has decided to appoint approximately 400 doctors on a regular basis, said health secretary Shivendu.

If the appointment comes through, it would be the first recruitment of doctors on a regular basis since Jharkhand was created: the last such appointments occurred in 1989. The appointments would also fill the shortage of medical staff prevalent in the state.

Besides, the department has also given clearance to appoint 161 alternative-medicine doctors, who would be posted either at one of the three alternative medicine hospitals in the state — Ayurvedic Medical College and Hospital in Chaibasa, Government Homeopathic Medical College and Hospital in Godda, and Unani Medical College and Hospital in Giridih — or at a district health care unit.

Shivendu told The Telegraph that the doctors would be appointed through the Jharkhand Public Service Commission and some would be appointed on contract, too. “We have decided to appoint doctors on a regular and on contract basis. In some districts, regular doctors would be posted while the other districts would have doctors on contractual basis,” he said.

The health department would issue advertisements calling in applications within two weeks. Shivendu also said that the contracts of the doctors who are posted in the districts would not be renewed.

The latest decision comes after The Telegraph had reported that doctors appointed on contract in rural areas were relocating either to other states or to urban areas because their services were not being regularised or their pay was not “lucrative enough”. The fresh appointments are expected to repair the damage created by this exodus.

“We are redesigning the service conditions of the doctors so that they stay in the rural areas they are postedin , which has been our major thrust,” said Shivendu.

The government had last year appointed 2,468 doctors on contract basis and their terms expire in a few months. Already, more than 1,300 of these medicos have quit or have been terminated for absenteeism. Moreover, several regular doctors are also retiring everyday. The state is left with 2,579 doctors in the government sector against the sanctioned strength of 7,344, which is only three-fourths of the requirement.