KARACHI: Higher salaries at private hospitals hinder expert doctors from joining the public healthcare sector, Sindh Health Minister Dr Azra Fazal Pechuho told the Sindh Assembly on Thursday, candidly accepting the government's medical centres have a dearth of expert physicians.
Doctors are unwilling to join the public healthcare sector since the private hospitals offer them with higher salaries, Pechuho informed the house.
She said that doctors in the province are bound to qualify for the government job only through a public commission exam, which also drives them away to the private hospitals, creating a shortage of physicians for the public sector.
Replying to questions about her department, she said that the local doctor have a huge opportunity to earn millions in the US. She acknowledged that the government hospitals lack competent doctors. "We are starting again the biometric attendance for doctors," she added.
About the officially required qualification for lady health workers, she said that it needs an intermediate level of education to join the government healthcare services. However, after appointment, lady workers get further medical trainings.
She also informed the legislature that the government plans to build 1000 houses for the flood-affected lady health workers with the support of China.
The minister said that the government has also appointed staff meant to convince the parents who deny polio vaccination to their kids.
In Karachi, 130,000 parents have denied polio vaccination to their kids, she said in a stark revelation.
MQM's Jamal Ahmed asked about the government's plans to overcome the rising gastro disease caused due to contaminated water being supplied to the public in the megacity.
However, the health minister said s that there is a scheme of the World Bank for testing samples of unhealthy water. Besides, the government also plans to canalize clean water from River Indus to the megacity for the public needs. About the HIV disease awareness programs, she said that there are several efforts under way to eradicate the lethal infective menace. She also told the house that the government is set to regularise all doctors appointed during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024