News Analysis India

Tag: Uttarakhand specialist doctors

  • Uttarakhand faces scarcity of specialist doctors amid fears of Covid third wave

    Express News Service

    DEHRADUN: Data accessed through an RTI query filed by Social Development for Communities Foundation revealed that 9 out of 13 districts in Uttarakhand have less than 50% availability of specialist doctors.

    As the third wave of Covid 19 looms large, the hill state is also facing around 60% shortfall in child specialists in the state. 

    “Health department needs to review and re-evaluate the IPHS framework along with the Government of India. Nainital and Pauri have a maximum number of approved positions despite having less population and medical facilities. We need to judiciously allocate our human resources and focus more in places where the burden on health facilities is more,” says Anoop Nautiyal, Founder, Social Development for Communities Foundation. 

    Out of a total of 158 sanctioned posts of child specialists, only 61 are working in Uttarakhand government hospitals. 

    In Dehradun district out of a total 18, 15 child specialists are working followed by 2 in Rudraprayag against sanctioned 4, five in Udham Singh Nagar against sanctioned 13, four in Uttarakashi against sanctioned seven, two in Champawat against sanctioned four, two in Bageshwar against sanctioned five and four in Almora against sanctioned 18. Meanwhile, there are only six child specialists in Haridwar against a sanctioned total of 14, 12 in Nainital against sanctioned 23, two in Pithoragarh against sanctioned eight, five in Pauri against sanctioned 22, one in Chamoli against sanctioned eight and one in Tehri against sanctioned 14. 

    Out of a total 13, 11 districts do not have even a single psychiatrist, making access to mental healthcare a big challenge in the Himalayan state. 

    Four districts have reported zero availability of public health specialists at a time when the country is preparing for the third wave. 

    More than 50% shortfall in overall specialist doctors across 9 districts in Uttarakhand such as orthopaedic surgeon, eye surgeon, radiologist, anaesthetist, gynecologist, child specialist, forensic, microbiologist, psychiatrist, pathologist, skin diseases, ENT surgeon, general surgeon and physician. 

    Chamoli has only 17 specialists available against the approved 62 posts. Similarly, in Pauri, only 42 specialist doctors are available as against the approved 152 posts. As against the approved 127 posts for specialist doctors, only 49 are working in the district of Almora. On the other hand, only 22 specialist doctors are available against the approved 59 in the district of Pithoragarh. 

    The situation is extremely alarming in the district of Haridwar which happens to be the largest district in terms of population in the state. 

    Haridwar has only 40 specialist doctors against the approved 105 posts. This makes only one specialist available for more than 50000 people in Haridwar. 

    There is also a nearly 60% shortage of gynaecologists in the state. 

    “Accessibility is already a major challenge for women in hilly areas. Unavailability of female doctors will further exacerbate the issue and can impact the state’s performance on parameters like institutional deliveries, antenatal care, child nutrition etc,” says Rishabh Shrivastava, lead researcher of the SDC Foundation.    

  • Amidst pandemic, 654 posts for specialist doctors remain vacant in Uttarakhand

    Express News Service
    DEHRADUN: Uttarakhand has only 43% specialist doctors available to serve across 13 districts, amidst the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, revealed an RTI reply. Out of total 1147 approved posts for specialist doctors, only 493 are working, leaving 654 posts vacant. 

    The RTI query was filed by Dehradun based Social Development for Communities Foundation. 

    “These numbers are alarming, especially when we are in middle of the pandemic. I urge the government authorities to take stock of the situation and initiate measures to fill these gaps in vacancies of the specialist doctors in the state,” Anoop Nautiyal, Founder, SDC Foundation. 

    Tehri remains the worst affected district with only 13% availability of specialist doctors, followed by Chamoli at 27% and Pauri at 28%. 

    Out of total 98 approved posts, only 13 are filled and 85 are vacant. There is not a single surgeon, ENT, forensic, skin, microbiology, and psychiatric specialists in the district. There remains only one child (out of 14), physician (out of 15) and public health specialist (out of 12). Moreover, there are only two gynecologists out of the 15 that are approved in the district. Tehri has 100% availability of ortho surgeons, eye surgeons and pathologists. 

    Dehradun remains the district with highest availability of specialist doctors at 92%, followed by Rudraprayag at 63%.

    The data has been shared by Department of Health and Family Welfare, government of Uttarakhand, as available on April 30, 2021 for specialities in 15 categories across the 13 districts of Uttarakhand. 

    The information was analyzed and shared by SDC Foundation in its report titled “State of Specialist Doctors in Uttarakhand 2021”. 

    The state has only one forensic expert out of 25 approved posts, four skin, four psychiatric specialists out of the approved 32 and 28 posts respectively.

    As the threat of third wave looms over the state, it has only 17% public health experts and 41% child specialists available to monitor the state’s progress and preparations for the raging pandemic. 

    In terms of women’s health, only 36% gynecologists are present and working in the state. 

    “Having poor distribution of medical workforce is going to impact our response to COVID-19. The findings have a large implication on rural and hilly areas, which remains ignored when discussing about public health system in Uttarakhand. I hope that this study will enable government to engage in informed decision making,” added Nautiyal. 

    Few days ago, several MLAs met the newly elected Health Minister Dhan Singh Rawat and raised the issue of having adequate deployment of specialist doctors in the state.

    Earlier in 2018, according to a report by the Niti Aayog, Uttarakhand was placed amongst three worst performing large states due to high vacancy in the posts of specialist doctors at district hospitals. 

    “Almost 60% posts of specialist doctors are vacant in the state. This should be addressed as an immediate priority by both the newly elected CM as well as the Health Minister of the state. Having adequate specialist doctors will not only help us sail through these tough times of COVID-19 but strengthen our health systems in the rural and hilly areas, which is much needed,” said Vidush Pandey, Researcher and member of the study team at SDC Foundation.  

    The Foundation had earlier campaigned for having a full time and dedicated Health Minister for the state. After the appointment of new CM Pushkar Singh Dhami, state got Dhan Singh Rawat as the new full time Health Minister after more than four years. 

    “The problem is really serious for the hill districts, they have low availability of specialist doctors. The data shows only 36% availability of gynecologists in the state, which can have a big impact on the health of women in the state. It is already hard for women to access  public health systems. These are really important insights and we are hopeful that government under the new leadership of Chief Minister Pushkar Dhami will take this on an urgent basis”, says Rishabh Shrivastava, Lead – Research and Communications, SDC Foundation.