Amidst the acute shortage of doctors in various govt health centres across Meghalaya, after around eight years, the state Government has completed the recruitment process of over 400 doctors. These 400 new doctors were recruited through the Meghalaya Medical services recruitment board.
Informing this, Health Minister James K Sangma said not recruiting doctors in the last so many years had created a huge shortage at the grassroot.
“I am happy to inform you that this recruitment has happened after a considerable period of time because the last recruitment I think took place in the year 2016. So since then we have not able to recruit a single doctor which had created a huge shortage in the grassroot where we were having shortage of doctors,” Sangma said.
Asked, he said, “This is a combination of both Allopathic and Ayush doctors.”
Notably, the Meghalaya Government notified the constitution of the Meghalaya Medical Services Recruitment Board (MMRB) in November last year.
Dr Joram Beda, IAS, Secretary, Meghalaya, Health and Family Welfare Department has been appointed as Chairperson and Dr L. Mylliemumlong, Joint Director, Directorate of Health Service (MI), Meghalaya as member secretary.
Meanwhile, Chief Minister Conrad Sangma on Tuesday interacted with the 400 new recruits’ doctors and inaugurated 22 AB-Health and Wellness centres under National Ayush Mission.
Stating that over 400 Medical Doctors including Specialists have been recruited in 1 month since the formation of the Medical Services Recruitment Board (MMSRB), Chief Minister Conrad Sangma said, “Glad that our decision to form a separate recruitment board for Medical Services will help us bridge the acute shortage of doctors in Health Centres across Meghalaya to a great extent.”
The Chief Minister further said, “Happy to inaugurate 22 AYUSH Bharat Health & Wellness Centres under the National AYUSH Mission which will be a force multiplier for effective health service delivery for the state. These are part of the 22 AYUSH dispensaries and Sub Health Centres that were upgrade to AYUSH Health and Wellness centres this year. We have also recruited 22 AYUSH doctors who have been designated as Community Health Officers to manage these centres.”
Meanwhile, the Health Minister has also informed that the Government of Meghalaya signed a MoU with the Government of Tamil Nadu through which Tamil Nadu has agreed to support Meghalaya for recruitment and training of medical professionals.
This is a first-of-its-kind medical partnership between the two Indian states for collaboration on knowledge sharing, capacity building and improving health service delivery.
“We do have shortage of specialist in the state and as you know we have recently signed a MOU with Tamil Nadu Government wherein we will be sending some of our doctors to the state of Tamil Nadu to get necessary training, we hope to build up capacity of our doctors and fill up that gap in terms of specialist,” he added.