The current pandemic has brought public health to the forefront like never before. India's public health systems are operating beyond their intended capacity, facing critical shortages in both medical personnel and essential equipment. Uttarakhand, too, grapples with numerous challenges in this regard. As a part of an ongoing study, SDC has prepared a detailed analysis of districts and specialist doctors in the state that will be shared in three stages over the coming weeks. The study highlights the availability of 15 types of specialist doctors across Uttarakhand's 13 districts, based on RTI data obtained from the Dept. of Medical, Health and Family Welfare, Govt. of Uttarakhand.
Part 1
Only 43% specialist doctors available in Uttarakhand.
Hill districts of Tehri, Chamoli and Pauri worst affected in terms of availability of specialist doctors.
Uttarakhand has only 43% specialist doctors available to serve across 13 districts, amidst the ongoing COVID-19 crisis. The data has been shared by Department of Health & Family Welfare, Government of Uttarakhand, as available on 30th April 2021 for 15 specialities spread across the 13 districts of Uttarakhand. Out of the total 1147 approved posts for specialist doctors, only 493 are working, leaving 654 posts vacant.
Tehri remains the worst affected district with only 13% availability of specialist doctors, followed by Chamoli at 27% and Pauri at 28%. Dehradun remains the district with highest availability of specialist doctors at 92%, followed by Rudraprayag at 63%.
At the moment, Uttarakhand has only 1 forensic expert out of 25 approved posts. Along with 4 skin and 4 psychiatric specialists out of the approved 32 and 28 posts respectively. As the threat of the third wave looms over the state, we only have 17% public health experts and 41% child specialists available to monitor the state’s progress and preparations for the raging pandemic. In terms of women’s health, only 36% of gynaecologists (out of the approved posts) are present and working in the state.
“These numbers are alarming, especially when we are in middle of the pandemic. I urge the government authorities to take stock of the situation and initiate measures to fill these gaps in vacancies of the specialist doctors in the state. Having poor distribution of medical workforce is going to impact our response to COVID-19. The findings have a large implication on rural and hilly areas, which remains ignored when discussing about public health system in Uttarakhand. I hope that this study will enable government to engage in informed decision making”, says SDC Founder Anoop Nautiyal.
A few days ago, several MLAs met the newly elected Health Minister Dhan Singh Rawat and raised the issue of having adequate deployment of specialist doctors in the state. Earlier in 2018, as per a report by Niti Aayog, Uttarakhand was placed amongst the three worst performing large states due to high vacancy in the posts of specialist doctors at district hospitals.
“Almost 60% of posts of specialist doctors are vacant in the state. This should be addressed as an immediate priority by both the newly elected CM as well as the Health Minister of the state. Having adequate specialist doctors will not only help us sail through these tough times of COVID-19 but strengthen our health systems in the rural and hilly areas, which is much needed”, says Vidush Pandey, Associate, Research and Advocacy, SDC Foundation
"The problem is really serious for the hill districts, they have low availability of specialist doctors. The data shows only 36% availability of gynaecologists in the state, which can have a big impact on the health of women in the state. It is already hard for women to access public health systems. These are really important insights and we are hopeful that government under the new leadership of Chief Minister Pushkar Dhami will take this on an urgent basis”, says Rishabh Shrivastava, Lead – Research and Communications, SDC Foundation.
Out of the total 98 approved posts in Tehri, only 13 are filled and 85 are vacant. There is not a single surgeon, ENT, forensic, skin, microbiology, or psychiatric specialist in the district. There remains only 1 child specialist (out of 14), 1 physician (out of 15) and 1 public health specialist (out of 12). Moreover, there are only 2 gynaecologists out of the 15 that are approved in the district. Tehri, however, has 100% availability of orthopaedic surgeons, eye surgeons and pathologists.
