The Committee set up to study the need to incentivise government service doctors has strongly recommended that the earlier method of 50% reservation for all postgraduate and PG diploma seats should be continued. This would be in addition to incentivising doctors who choose to work in difficult and inaccessible terrains in the State.
The P. Umanath committee categorised the health institutions as A, B, and C. Those in difficult terrains would get the maximum incentives allowed, while those identified with medium difficulty will get 40% of the maximum permissible incentive mark and those who would not benefit from the incentive marks at all.
Dr. Umanath’s report states that of the approximately 1.27 lakh doctors registered with the Tamil Nadu Medical Council, 30,000 doctors are working in various government health institutions and around one lakh doctors are practising in the State.
The report acknowledged that the problem of distribution of specialists depended on the availability of PG qualified doctors, adding that incentivisation framework is aimed at those courses for which admission is not centralised. The committee has declared 16 districts in the State as ‘difficult areas’ to serve. These include Ariyalur; Cuddalore; Dharmapuri; Dindigul; Nagapattinam; Nilgiris; Perambalur; Pudukottai; Ramanathapuram; Sivaganga; Theni; Thiruvannamalai; Thiruvarur; Vellore; Villupuram; and Virudhunagar.
Report uploaded
The report of the committee set up in 2017 to identify the areas, headed by P. Umanath, has been uploaded on the website of the Directorate of Medical Education.
In 2017, admission to postgraduate courses in medical colleges caused plenty of heartburn. Almost all PG seats went to government candidates as they are awarded an additional of 10% to a maximum of 30% marks for serving in difficult regions.
Protests by doctors during the admission process resulted in a series of litigations.
While in-service government doctors demanded reservation in PG seats for serving in government hospitals, non-service candidates protested that the State had an unfair system of giving marks and as a result they did not get seats.
An analysis of the various aspects revealed that the availability of doctors depended on preferred and less preferred districts, locations and areas of function.
“The incentivisation framework prescribed by this committee, would be the most apt solution to incentivise doctors to enter government service and move to needy institutions and difficult areas of function. Hence, this issue may continuously be taken up with MCI and the Union Government,” the report said.
