BENGALURU: The state Health department’s initiative to attract specialists to work in rural areas by allowing them to bid for their desired salaries online has borne fruit, albeit not entirely. There are still 1,153 specialists’ posts vacant in the state, with a Udupi doctor bagging the highest salary of `3.5 lakh per month through an online bid. The state had first resorted to this practice in July last year when it could not find doctors willing to work in remote areas.
There are 2,868 posts sanctioned for specialists in the state of which 1,153 posts are vacant. Only 1,715 specialist doctors are working currently. Also, 234 anaesthetists are required in the state as the number of sanctioned posts is 424 whereas those working are only 190.
Specialists are required in General Medicine, General Surgery, Obstetrics, Paediatrics, Anaesthesiology, Ophthalmology, Orthopaedics, ENT, Dermatology, Plastics, Radiology, Psychiatry, Pathology, Forensic Medicine, Nephrology/Urology, Tuberculosis, Microbiology, Biochemistry, Cardiology, Neurosurgery, Burns and Dentistry.