New empanelment policy irks PCMSA.
New empanelment policy irks PCMSA
Ferozepur, July 3, 2023: The PCMSA has expressd its reservations on the introduction of a new specialist doctors empaneling policy by the Punjab government . The association has pointed out that this policy would prove to be a virtual gateway to privatisation of public health services ultimately.
Dr.Akhil Sarin, State President , PCMSA said, “Instead of hiring young specialist doctors via regular appointments at respectable pay grades, which is a more pragmatic way to solve the long standing problem of staff/specialist shortages in the department, this scheme aims to go for a myopic solution which doesn’t seem to benefit the public in the long term putting their lives in to the hands of practitioners who would be available to them only for a limited time and not on regular posts as presently.The scheme may well be used a tool to poach poor and vulnerable patients from public institutions to the already running private hospitals of such specialists and expose them to the profit making corporate health mafia ultimately.This paradoxical move is out of sync with the present government’s line of commitment to strengthen the public health sector and will eventually benefit the private health set ups”.
Dr.Gagandeep Singh, Dr.Indervir Gill, State Chief Advisors, PCMSA said, “The Punjab Government has recently launched a scheme where private doctors will be employed as part-timers and free-lancers in government hospitals giving them disproportionately higher incentives viz a viz their regularly appointmented counterparts, who are already rendering committed 24*7 services in various health facilities of the State. It is not uncommon to attend to a daily OPD of well above hundred patients per day for the specialist doctors ,so the part-time empanelled doctors with a set remuneration of Rs.100 per patient, will be earning about Rs.10000-15000 per day, amounting to several lakhs per month, which will be 3-4 times of what the regularly employed specialists are being paid presently inspite of doing much more work along with the regular OPD services.It will be a huge loss to the govt services with the regular specialist appointment portal proving to be a more prudent financial option”.
Dr.Gagandeep Shergill, State Chief Advisor, PCMSA said,” The government should also understand that a patient’s course of ailment may vary from days to weeks and may need 24*7 attention, something that this scheme apparently doesn’t seem to take into account as private doctors may not be available to the patients, especially the ones admitted by them, after their limited stint at the hospital. The PCMSA fears that this scheme will lead to an array of problems that jeopardise the functioning of the already ill-equipped and underfunded public health care system. Also, for those specialists who wish to join the Govt sector through regular appointments in future, would now be lured to join under this ad hoc scheme as they will be getting higher pay for a lesser number of working hours with a licence to do private practice and limited accountability towards the higher authorities. There is also a possibility of many of the already serving regular specialists appointed in the recent past leaving the regular jobs and opting for the empanelled ones”.
Dr.Varinder Riar, Generally Secretary PCMSA said,” The PCMSA appeals the government to avoid such short sighted approaches towards public health care and instead invest in a long term, sustainable and quality human resources by sending more of their non-specialist doctors for post graduation and ensure their retention in service through the already applicable bond along with a better pay structures and health infrastructure so that they are motivated to give the best services to the patients coming to the government hospitals . Outsourcing of health services would ultimately erode the quality of the public health services . The present proposal seems nothing better than a short sighted step which would cause long term loss to the public and ultimately out sourcing their health into the hands of these part time specialist doctors.
