Odisha: Govt doctors to work in Covid hospitals run by private parties

BHUBANESWAR: Govt doctors will work in Covid hospitals run by private parties in exigency, the state government said on Friday. Doctors who are in the first two years of service after completion of post-graduation have to do at least one-month duty in Covid hospitals.
Government sources said while doing post-graduation, the medicos sign a bond to work for the government for at least two years: one year in a medical college and one year in any government hospital. After completion of their PG courses, currently, 447 such doctors have been working in various government hospitals and medical colleges for fulfilling their bond condition, which is called ‘bond service.’ The government has decided to use them in Covid care to meet the shortfall of doctors.
A notification issued by the health department said the specialists on bond service shall be engaged in Covid duty for 14 days and will remain in quarantine for the next 14 days. Each doctor shall be engaged in such rotation for one month.
“In view of the pandemic leading to the detection of more number of positive cases and increase in death trend, the services of more specialists in different fields have become inevitable,” the government order said even as a total number of positive cases in the state mounted to 22,693 and deaths increased to 120.
While sending doctors on requisition, the principals have to ensure that functioning of the medical colleges are not hampered.
The district administrations will place requisition of specialists with the medical colleges where these doctors have been working. The principal of the medical colleges will prepare the list of such doctors on ration basis. Teams comprising anaesthesia, pulmonary medicine and general medicine would be prepared for deployment in Covid hospitals.
Depending on the need, the notification said the requisitioned doctors may to work in Covid care centres and Covid hospitals run by private parties. Notably, the state government has tied with private medical colleges such as KIMS, SUM and HiTech to run dedicated Covid hospitals from their premises and in various other buildings. While the patients get free treatment in such facilities, the government reimburses the cost to these private parties.
The government has established 35 Covid hospitals having around 6,000 beds besides Covid care centres and Covid care homes having total more than 64,000 beds.
A PG doctor pleading anonymity said though they are not averse to work for Covid care, the government should deploy them in government-run facilities.
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