BENGALURU: Rural service is compulsory for 2,053 MBBS graduates who have been appointed to various vacant positions in health and family welfare and medical education departments, said Health Minister Dr K Sudhakar here on Monday. The government has hired the services of 1,750 doctors through direct recruitment recently, apart from 4,000 medical officers appointed during the pandemic, he said.
“In all, 1,001 medical students have been appointed on contract basis from 18 government medical colleges and hospitals. Of them, 666 will work at ICUs in taluk hospitals. They will report to work by this month-end. Apart from this, 348 doctors have been appointed under the National Health Mission. Of them, 90 have been posted to CHCs and three to the nephro-urology department. The government has filled 2,053 of the 2,108 vacant posts,” he said.
“Experts say that the 2DG drug developed by DRDO and manufactured by Dr Reddy’s Labs is safe to use. The government is planning to procure the medicine before the third wave,” he added.On the vaccination drive, he said, “The health department will provide assistance to vaccinate teaching and non-teaching staff, while the expert committee members will suggest how to go about it. We have sufficient stocks of vaccines.”
The state has reported 3,232 cases of mucormycosis so far. Of them, 387 patients have recovered, while 262 died. Over 1,600 people have been operated on, he said.The Karnataka Health Promotion Trust, in collaboration with the Association of Public Health Technologies, has developed a method to test tuberculosis patients using artificial intelligence. The pilot of this will be held in Ballari, Koppal, Chikkaballapur and Belagavi, he said.