Lucknow: To deal with the shortage of doctors in the state, the Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh has decided to appoint retired doctors on a contractual basis via the national health mission. Deputy CM Brijesh Pathak said that the patients should not face any kind of problem due to the shortage of doctors. There are more than 13,700 health and wellness centres in Uttar Pradesh and CHOs are being deployed in them.
Deputy Chief Minister Brijesh Pathak, who also holds the health portfolio, said, "Hospitals that are short of doctors, should list those departments. Doctors can be deployed on a contractual basis via national health mission." Medicines not available in the hospitals should be procured by purchasing them locally by the hospitals.
"For local purchase of medicines, the government is allocating a budget to hospitals. There is no dearth of budget for the welfare schemes of the patients," said Pathak. While sharing statistics, he said an exam for selecting community health officers (CHOs) is being conducted several times a year, and 9,680 CHOs have been trained since 2017.
"The government has set a record in the direction of training CHOs. Since 2017, 9680 CHOs have been selected and trained. The process of deployment of more than 5,000 CHOs is going on," said Pathak.
Dr Abhishek Shukla, secretary general, Association of International Doctors, said, "Appointing retired doctors on a contractual basis will help in two ways. First, their experience will help patients, particularly in the diagnosis of chronic ailments and secondly, the availability of doctors will increase. (IANS)
