Facing acute shortage, Karnataka Health Department to now hire specialists on ‘per day, per case’ basis Premium

Facing acute shortage, Karnataka Health Department to now hire specialists on ‘per day, per case’ basis Premium

Grappling with an acute shortage of specialists, Karnataka’s Health Department will now hire doctors against sanctioned posts on a per day, per case basis and also at Ayushman Bharat Arogya Karnataka (AB-ArK) rates. A government order (G.O.) to this effect was issued last week.

Currently, of the 2,877 sanctioned posts of specialists, 735 are vacant. Overall, of the 6,604 sanctioned posts of doctors (including specialists, general duty medical officers, chief medical officers, senior medical officers and dental officers), as many as 1,955 are vacant.

Unable to attract doctors through various existing mechanisms, the Department has now decided to hire specialists through different methods apart from hiring them on a contractual basis for fixed monthly remuneration, Harsh Gupta, Principal Secretary (Health and Family Welfare), told The Hindu on Thursday, January 16, 2024.

Asserting that the Department is taking all possible steps to fill these vacancies, the principal secretary said a letter was written to the Union Additional Health Secretary and Mission Director, National Health Mission Aradhana Patnaik in September last year, for a proposal to the Centre to increase the salaries of the contractual doctors,

“The shortage is primarily due to high attrition rates among specialists due to stagnant remuneration for the past seven years (no increments provided) coupled with the low base salary fixed for staff nurses and medical officers under the NHM in yearly approvals approved by the Union Health Ministry,” he said.

“We have sought the Ministry’s approval for a proposed hike in salary structure under NHM for various healthcare personnel. The salary structure was designed after careful consideration of the starting salaries in equivalent pay scales and prevailing market conditions,” he said.

He also said the Union Ministry has communicated that the issue will be taken up during the supplementary Programme Implementation Plan (PIP) discussions likely to be held in January or February. “Meanwhile, we have decided to hire specialists on a per day, per case basis through AB-ArK funds for one year at a time,” he said.

Specialists such as radiologists will be hired on a per radiography/CT/MRI scan basis. They will be given the liberty to either come in person and certify the scans or do the same through a teleradiology system, which is to be provided by them. The rates will be fixed through a local tender, subject to the indication of some ceiling rates by the Commissioner. 

Under the ABArK scheme, doctors performing a procedure are paid a certain incentive amount, which is a percentage of the total cost of the procedure. “The specialists for specialities like Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Anesthesia and Surgery, etc., can be offered such incentive amounts for their contractual services,” said the G.O.