BHUBANESWAR: Reeling under doctor and paramedic shortage crisis in KBK and other remote districts of Odisha, the State Government has decided to create a corpus fund at district levels using which health professionals can be hired and supported to fill in gaps in health services delivery.
The Health and Family Welfare Department issued a notification for creation of the fund which will be placed with Zilla Swasthya Samitis (ZSS) in each district. The amount of the corpus has not been fixed or specified as it will be decided by the Government from time to time keeping in mind the requirement. The funds would be provisioned from the State Budget.
The corpus, the Department said, will be used for health care delivery at remote locations through real time management. The ZSS has been given the freedom to hire doctors and nurses to serve in the most vulnerable areas under the scheme. Even resources can be hired from neighbouring States, if necessary, the notification said.
Hiring specialists, general doctors and nurses at rates higher than those prescribed by the Government is also allowed where the need arises.
Since mobility of doctors and paramedic staff from CHCs to PHCs is a major handicap during exigency, the Collectors have been authorised to devise route plans so that the personnel can be picked up and dropped off whenever necessary.
The transportation timings have to be kept flexible since doctors and nurses may not be able to return from certain places due to unforeseen emergencies. The district administration can use the fund to arrange residential accommodation wherever it is available for the health personnel.
“Gaps in services that matter for ensuring ideal working conditions for service delivery in health sector need to be analysed by the district administration,” the notification stated. To streamline the whole arrangement, the Department has prescribed that IT solutions be devised to keep a tab on how services are being sourced.
The Collectors will be administrator-cum-chairman of the funds while CDMOs will be the member-secretaries. The utilisation will be monitored on a monthly basis by the Collectors and all details would be put on public domain, the Department said.
The objective is to retain human resources in remote and inaccessible pockets, provide flexibility in resource management while enhancing accountability of doctors under ZSS.