The Maharashtra government’s attempt to fill vacancies by wooing private doctors to government hospitals — by first allowing them to negotiate salaries and later providing additional incentives — has yielded results. In the last six months since the scheme was announced, the government has appointed 356 specialists.
At least 12 gynaecologists and anaesthetists have bargained for a pay package of over Rs 3 lakh per month to serve in rural districts of Beed, Raigad, Yawatmal and Chandrapur.
Before the state government took the decision to incentivise salaries to serve in government hospitals in December 2017, specialists received a salary of Rs 50,000 to Rs 90,000 per month, depending on their work experience.
Civil surgeon Dr Ashok Thorat said, “After specialists increased in rural and sub-district hospitals, in Beed, records show there is a dip in women going to the private sector for delivery, from 40 to 20 per cent.”
Read more of this in a report by Tabassum Barnagarwala in The Indian Express...
