May 17, 2008 - It’s hard to retain, let alone recruit, a doctor in Uttar Pradesh these days. That’s the bitter lesson the authorities of the prestigious Chhatrapati Sahuji Maharaj Medical University (CSMMU), formerly, King George’s Medical College, in Lucknow, learnt when they advertised for seven cardiology posts recently.

Only four interviewees turned up and out of the selected two, only one joined. And this was not a stand-alone incident.

Out of the six government medical colleges in the state, five are running with ad-hoc principals and this shortage of teachers may even result in the de-recognition of the medical colleges.

At a time when India’s healthcare sector is witnessing an unprecedented boom, horror stories in health are ricocheting in the country’s biggest state. As always the victim is the public and the culprit is politics.

With medical practitioners, the police and the bureaucracy locking horns, health is a war-zone.

If in the last round, the latter slapped charges of immoral private practice on “greedy doctors”, medics have hit back by shunning jobs in medical colleges and state health services.
Check out the statistics. Over 80 per cent posts of super-specialists in state hospitals and medical colleges are lying vacant.

Even state health minister Anant Kumar Mishra admitted recently that only 197 medics had responded to the 900 posts advertised by the state Public Service Commission.

The prestigious CSMMU has no specialists in nephology, transfusion, organ transplant and community dentistry, while the numbers are dwindling in radio diagnosis and cardio-thoracic vascular surgery.

Out of the 28 posts advertised at the dental college, just 12 medicos applied and only four took up the jobs. The Lucknow Civil Hospital has only two anesthetists while six posts remain unfilled. This story repeats itself across the state.

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