Peanut salary a bitter pill for doctors to swallow: Practitioners

Hyderabad: As the State government issued a notification for filling up 1,492 doctor posts for Palle Dawakhanas, doctors have started to opine that no professional MBBS degree holder would join the duty for a meagre pay of Rs 40,000 per month and rather demanded the government to call these recruits as Mid-Level Health Providers (MLHP).

The State government had issued a notification to fill up the posts of 1,492 doctors with an aim to focus on recruitment of doctors for sub-centres attached to primary health centres in rural areas. These posts were necessary after the government established Palle Dawakhanas in rural regions to provide medical services for the poor.

However, doctors state that the meagre pay, proposed for the professionals, would discourage qualified MBBS doctors from joining the government service. "For instance the remuneration prescribed for paramedical ophthalmic officer (which requires the candidate to have passed in class 12 along with two years of diploma in ophthalmic assistant) is Rs 30,000 per month, whereas for MBBS qualified doctors it is Rs 40,000 per month, is it not pathetic?," questioned a doctor.

Healthcare Reforms Doctors Association (HRDA) president K Mahesh Kumar said that MBBS qualified allopathic doctors would refuse to join even though they are much more preferred and added that MBBS doctors are being offered Rs 40,000, Rs 33,000 for BAMS(Bachelor of Ayurvedic Medicine and Surgery) doctors and Rs 29,000 for BSc Nursing qualified professionals. "It is clear that the government does not want qualified allopathic doctors in health and wellness centres including Palle Dawakhanas. Shame on those who have decided these pay scales," said Mahesh Kumar adding, "It was better to not call MLHPs as doctors, which may be misleading to the common public because of high possibilities of quackery by BAMS professionals in violating MLHP guidelines".

Doctors also state that prescribing allopathic medicines by AYUSH doctors and nursing staff is purely illegal and against the National Medical Commission (NMC) Act. "The government is unnecessarily inviting legal troubles to MLHPs", a doctor said.