Date:03/07/2009 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2009/07/03/stories/2009070357510300.htm

New Delhi

Double pay for doctors, paramedics in rural areas

Aarti Dhar

It will encourage them to go to remote locations, says Azad

This move is part of the Health and Family Welfare Ministry’s 100-day agenda
The Ministry will identify inaccessible areas, particularly in the hilly States and tribal regions

NEW DELHI: As part of monetary incentive to encourage medical personnel to take up rural postings, doctors, specialists and para-medical staff serving in the rural, particularly far-flung and inaccessible areas, will get double the salary their counterparts in other areas earn.

Announcing this as part of the Health and Family Welfare Ministry’s 100-day agenda, Union Health and Family Welfare Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad said these incentives would encourage medical personnel to serve the poor and needy people.

The Ministry, through the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM), will make funds available for contractual appointments and provide significantly higher monetary incentives based on the location of the posting. The salaries could be almost double to those drawn by medical professionals in urban areas, Mr. Azad said.

In the next three months, the Ministry, in consultation with State governments, will identify difficult, most difficult and inaccessible areas, particularly in the hilly States and tribal regions. This will be done to fill up deficiencies in the strength of medical personnel, the Minister said.

A web-based Health Management Information System (HMIS) will be fully operational by July 31, 2009, to enable district-wise reporting of the progress of the NRHM on a monthly, quarterly and annual basis. This will enable timely monitoring of physical and financial progress more effectively, he said. The Ministry has also made a commitment to revive the three public sector vaccine manufacturing units at Kasauli, Guindy and Coonoor whose manufacturing licenses were suspended last year for failure to comply with the good manufacturing practices (GMP) prescribed by the World Health Organisation.

An oversight committee has prepared a road map for revamping the vaccine manufacturing facility at the Central Research Institute, Kasauli. The retrofitted facility will start functioning within a year, while the process for the revival of the B.C.G Vaccine Laboratory at Guindy and the Pasteur Institute of India at Coonoor will be initiated, Mr. Azad said.

The Ministry will also initiate a proposal to introduce a Bill to comprehensively amend the Transplantation of Human Organs Act, 1994 to make the process of organ transplantation less cumbersome for genuine cases and also network all transplantation centres for better coordination and utilisation of harvested organs.