Chandigarh: The Health, Medical Education, and Research Minister, Dr. Balbir Singh, clarified before the State Assembly that newly graduated specialist doctors will offer their services in the government hospitals after completing the postgraduate medical courses. He was referring to the state’s shortage of specialists.

The state’s health minister further emphasised how the previous administration failed to ensure that PG medical graduates from government medical colleges offered their services to government-run hospitals for a period of time and that the bond penalty amount was not collected from them.

The Health Minister also revealed that from 2020 until the present, a total of 701 MD graduates had worked in government institutions after sharing statistics on medical students who received their MD and MBBS degrees.

The State Health Minister also disclosed that 57 doctors had to pay back Rs 6,47,17140 for failing to provide services to the government.

The Health Minister made these pronouncements at a time when some hospitals in the state are experiencing a speciality doctor shortage. Of the 119 authorised positions, 50 vacancies in Phagwara civil hospitals were previously reported by Medical Dialogues. In the instance of the doctor positions, 14 of the 36 authorised positions remained unfilled.

A lack of specialised physicians was also present at Nakodar Civil Hospital in Punjab, where open positions included those for a surgeon, an ENT specialist, a radiology expert, an anaesthetist, a pathologist, and two medical officer positions.

According to the most recent media report by Amar Ujala, the Health Minister acknowledged that there is a shortage of health providers in various hospitals throughout the province and stated that the government is compiling information on the hospitals in every area during the question period in the House on Monday during the Punjab Legislative Assembly’s budget session. He added that doctors would soon be hired for all government hospitals in accordance with their needs.

The Health Minister also told the House that 380 students finish their post-graduate medical studies each year. These PG medical graduates sign the bond at the time of admission, but they don’t follow the terms of the bond; thus, after receiving their degree, they go to private hospitals. In reference to this, Dinesh Chadha, an AAP MLA from Ropar, highlighted how, in the previous ten years, the government authorities had failed to ensure that the PG medical graduates from the state’s government medical colleges provided their services to government-run hospitals for a short period of time. He further said that the state should take action against the government officials who helped these doctors transfer to private hospitals and receive lucrative salaries.

The Health Minister was quoted by Indian Express as saying, “In reference to the fact that the PG medical graduates must serve the government for two years or pay Rs 15 lakh, the previous administrations failed to ensure that these doctors performed their services in state-run hospitals and failed to collect the money owed to them. Negligence in a criminal matter “From 57 doctors who did not work for the government, we have recovered Rs 6.47 crore, and we will continue to recover money from other doctors as well.”

According to The Times of India, the minister promised that the AAP government will make sure that there is never a shortage of specialists in the state. In order to address the physician shortage, he further guaranteed that these expert doctors would provide their services at government hospitals after completing their postgraduate medical training. He continued by pointing out that not a single medical college had opened in the state in the previous 40 years, but that the state government was now building four such institutions.

The Congress MLA Amarinder Singh Raja Warding, meanwhile, made reference to the lack of a doctor at the government hospital in Gidderbaha and emphasised that the facility had seven approved doctor roles. The Health Minister took note of this and promised that he would demonstrate the situation so that doctors would soon be hired at the hospital.