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Govt moves towards privatizing health sector
WSN Network

LUDHIANA: As a good measure of the kind of attention the Punjab government has been paying to the core sector of health, government doctors poseted in rural areas of Punjab are planning to shut down their dispensaries from September 15 to pressure the Akali-BJP regime to stop all moves aimed at privatizing the health sector. 

The government is not so subtle: it plans to first delay renewal of contracts of government doctors, then ease them out, and then claim the health sector was in bad shape and only private capital can save it. It is a tried and tested formula and has already been applied in transport and education sector. 

The three-year contract of the 1,193 doctors appointed in 2006 ended on May 31, this year. The Department of Rural Development instead of renewing the contract extended it for one month with promise of renewal in July. But the government reneged on its promise as the rural doctors were again given extension of two months. Fed up with the government’s attitude more than 200 doctors left jobs in two years. The state of medicare available in Punjab’s villages is a shame, but a culture of complete apathy enables the government to make claims of great development.

9 September 2009
 

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