Bhubaneswar: Odisha Health and Family Welfare Minister Niranjan Pujari has said that the state government will fill up all vacant posts of doctors in its medical facilities by the end of 2023.
Addressing a press conference here on Monday, Pujari said that Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik believes that every human life is precious, and hence the government has been striving to boost health services and improve their quality across the state for the last two decades.
“The health services in the state were adversely affected due to scarcity of doctors, paramedical staff, and nurses in the government hospitals. Considering this, the state government set up eight new medical colleges, two post-graduate institutes, and the Odisha Health Science University, besides upgrading the nurse training institutes to colleges,” Pujari said.
Now, 2,200 MBBS doctors and 826 specialist doctors are graduating from the medical colleges in the state compared to 2,000 MBBS doctors and 254 specialist doctors in 2000. “As far as doctors are concerned, Odisha is emerging as a surplus state and all the government healthcare facilities across Odisha will have the required number of doctors by the end of this year,” he added.
Pujari said keeping in view that cancer is the fastest spreading disease the state government will set up three research-based hospitals. “In order to extend medical services to every citizen, the government has started Biju Swasthya Kalyan Yojana. Under the scheme, more than 3.3 crore people of 96.5 lakh families can avail free treatment not only in government hospitals in Odisha but also prominent medical facilities outside the state,” he said.
Salini Pandit, Secretary, Health and Family Welfare department, said the Budget allocation for the healthcare sector has increased 30 times from Rs 550 crore in 2000-01 to Rs 15,756 crore in 2023-24.
