Move to streamline availability of specialists in government hospitals
Ramya Kannan
Rationalisation to match demand with supply
Exercise to be taken up in 270 hospitals
at the secondary level
CHENNAI: The State Government has launched a massive programme of rationalisation to streamline availability of specialists in government secondary-level hospitals.
Taken up by the World Bank-funded Tamil Nadu Health Systems Project, the rationalisation process will try to match the demand with supply.
It will try to set right any excess or shortage of specialists in hospitals that fall in the secondary level.
Currently, there is no rule that governs the posting of specialists to government hospitals.
“Right now, anyone can be posted anywhere,” points out TNHSP director P.W.C.Davidar.
As a result, several imbalances have arisen, leading to under utilisation of many specialist doctors serving in rural and semi-urban areas.
For instance, a hospital may have five gynaecologists and obstetricians but no anaesthetist, or anaesthetists may be posted in a hospital that has no theatre facilities. A hospital may lack a paediatrician, and an ENT surgeon may be posted in that slot, denying people of the area the services of a government paediatrician.
They are then forced to go to private doctors, says a health official.
Countering imbalances
Rationalisation attempts at avoiding situations that arise out of such imbalances.
This major exercise will be done in 270 hospitals at the secondary-level hospitals, at the taluk and sub-taluk levels.
The department expects to complete the exercise in two months’ time.
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