Can I please help you ?

We cry hoarse about lack of availability of specialists and superspecialists in Government sector. There is no denying that after getting the required DM / MCh and gaining reasonable clinical proficiency Doctors leave the Government teaching institutes to seek high salaries in private sector. Government cannot match the salaries which are offered to cardiologists , endocrinologists and gastroenterologists in the private sector . However it is also true that these same doctors when try to professionally 
associate with the parent institute partly they are rebuffed.

Though I am glad Sushma Swaraj Ji is healthy after successful kidney transplant done at AIIMS Delhi , I am also thankful to her for highlighting the point I wish to raise. Why was Dr Mukut Minz , a private practitioner at that time permitted to operate in AIIMS on Sushmaji ? If this could be done for a VIP what is so grossly wrong in formalizing an arrangement where competent qualified and experienced private practitioners are given attachments in premier Government Institutions so that their experience may be used for benefit of patients as well as the intraining doctors. The waiting lists for various surgeries could be brought down if talent pool outside the boundary walls of the institutes is utilized.

Many of these highly qualified, trained and experienced doctors can contribute a lot to reduce load of the Government Institutes, teach the trainees for limited hours and also keep running their private practices. The rigid straight jacket approach towards Government service needs to be changed . There needs to be created a cadre which has teaching and admission rights within Government hospitals and though they may not be offered administrative posts but they should not be considered pariahs.This would alleviate the deficit of medical teachers, and help retain postgraduate seats for the institutes.

In a round about way these senior doctors were utilized by using the DNB program through NBE. Unfortunately the rivalry and ego clashes have lead to a quixotic recent stance by MCI whereby the equivalence of a DNB has now been denied vis a vis MD/MS. This will be a deathblow to the DNB program and consequently to the utilization of the invaluable human resource outside the established institutes.

Many Government institutions cannot start specialized programs like liver transplantation, bone marrow transplant, minimally invasive CABG, and so on so forth. Removing the un-touchability of those with the required skills in private sector will go a long way in establishing specialized surgical programs within Government Institutes. It is not that this is a new concept. All over the world clinicians are either employed full time or given attachments and teaching assignments in various institutes. A mechanism can easily be worked out where this can be established in our country but that would require those at the helm of affairs within Government Institutes to set aside their own insecurities and have a broader vision for their departments and institutions.

Dr Neeraj Nagpal 
Convenor,Medicos Legal Action Group, Managing Director MLAG Indemnity,
Ex President IMA Chandigarh
Director Hope Gastrointestinal Diagnostic Clinic,
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