Mumbai: With more than 310 doctors in Mumbai alone infected with Covid, the Maharashtra Medical Education Department on Thursday announced its Plan B -- doctors, medical officers, paramedics and health workers would be hired on contract basis in nearly 25 state government medical colleges and hospitals to cope with the situation.
Medical Education Minister Amit Deshmukh told The Free Press Journal, “The department will hire them on contract from the private sector. Besides, there are many health workers and organisations that had offered to work during the pandemic. The department has also asked the Maharashtra Public Service Commission (MPSC) and the Directorate of Medical Education and Selection Board to expedite the recruitment process. These posts run into thousands in various categories. Some manpower is outsourced at the divisional, state and technical recruitment processes.”
Deshmukh said the department had proposed that there should be a dedicated MPSC cell to look after the recruitment in the health sector because it is an emergency and essential service. “At present, MPSC looks after recruitment in all government departments and undertakings but through a dedicated cell, the recruitment of doctors and other necessary manpower can be expedited. It will be a game changer for Maharashtra,” he noted.
Deshmukh said that, majority of the doctors are asymptomatic and they are being treated and isolated. “They will get back to their jobs immediately. If there are further complications, we will treat them.
“We have asked deans, superintendents, directors and the department secretary to be extremely vigilant in terms of the SOPs that they will have to follow given the virulence of the germ and one does not know how one even contracts it.” He said the department would ensure that these SOPs are strictly adhered to by the doctors. Some SOPs will be further improved” he said.
Deshmukh said he had directed the deans and superintendents to carry out periodic testing of these doctors to eliminate the virus. Such tests will ensure the isolation of the one or two that are infected and they will be isolated so they do not spread or become super-spreaders of the infection. But if there are asymptomatic doctors, they can spread infection to others.
The minister said that with the guidelines of the Central and state government, the department would launch a drive to give booster doses to health workers so that their immunity was not compromised but enhanced. “The department is working on all these fronts so that the health force is not affected,” he added.
