Fazilka: Faced by a shortage of doctors in government hospitals and dispensaries, the Punjab health and family welfare department is planning to raise the retirement age of doctors from 58 to 65, said state health and family welfare minister Balbir Singh Sidhu here on Monday.Presiding over a meeting of the district grievances committee here, Sidhu said the SAD-BJP government in the state had denied decent pay to government doctors, because of which they lost interest in government services. “After the Congress came to power in the state, CM Amarinder Singh announced a substantial increase in the payscale of doctors, following which doctors have again started joining government services,” he said.
He said the decision to increase the age bar of doctors would ensure there was no staff shortage in government hospitals for at least seven years.
Addressing a query on shortage of specialist doctors in state-run government hospitals, the minister said he had called a meeting of the health department on Tuesday in which ways will be discussed to fill the vacant posts of specialist doctors and para-medicos. “I ensure all 236 life-saving medicines are available at civil hospitals, so that poor patients could take advantage of free medicine,” he said.