Tripura mulls bringing back doctors of State origin

A correspondent

Agartala, June 4: Taking cognizance of the shortage of doctors in the State, the Tripura government has decided to embark on a special move of bringing the medical practitioners back to the State, who originally are from Tripura but working outside, to serve the people of Tripura.

The move has been taken after a review meeting that was presided over by Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb. The Chief Minister instructed the director of Medical Education to contact all doctors who passed out of the two medical colleges but serving in other States or abroad. The review meeting found that not only the post graduate doctors, but the MBBS degree holders are also not keen to return to the State, and instead prefer to serve in private hospitals outside.

The meeting also revealed that most of the doctors are not willing to return to the State as salary paid in the government hospitals of Tripura is much less compared to the private hospitals outside. Another reason for the shortage of doctors is that in Tripura they are made to serve either in rural or hilly areas, which most of them do not prefer.

The department, in a bid to allay such fears, has recently taken a decision to provide urban posting to the doctors after they serve in the rural areas for a certain period of time. At present, the State has 1025 health sub-centre, 108 Primary Health Centre, 22 Community Health Centre, 12 sub-divisional Health Centre and 6 district and 6 State hospitals. Most of them, however, are suffering from shortage of doctors. The State also suffers from the severe shortage of specialised doctors for different disciplines. The meeting also decided to provide higher salary to the specialised doctors.