The Uttarakhand State Government raised the retirement age of specialist doctors in the health and medical education department from 60 to 65 years.

The state government raised the retirement age due to the severe shortage of specialist doctors in the state health services. This decision took place in a meeting of the health department, which was presided over by Health Minister Dhan Singh Rawat along with the Chief Secretary SS Sandhu and Senior Health Department officials of Uttarakhand.

The Health Minister has decided to create a separate cadre of specialist doctors with a hike in salary and the doctors who are on fixed salary will be appointed in the posts which are currently vacant. They are also working to create some temporary posts in the health department as a recourse to the serving MBBS doctors who were on study leave. The Minister instructed the officials to restore all the technician's posts in the health department. He also said that there are 1,300 vacant posts in the technical cadre in the health department, and the cabinet had given clearance to fill only 250 posts of technician posts previously. The department needs the services of all these technicians, to reduce the shortage of technicians in primary health centers, community health centers, sub-district hospitals, and district hospitals. The decision to raise the maximum age limit for the post of professors in government medical colleges from 50 to 62 years and the retirement age remains 65 years. Also, to appoint professors and associate professors to 156 vacant posts in government medical colleges and increase the salary of super specialty doctors in cardiology, urology, nephrology, radiology, neurosurgery, plastic, and burn surgeries.

The decision to raise the retirement age of specialist doctors was initially announced by the Health minister at an event and for the final endorsement, a formal proposal was submitted to the cabinet.

An officer who attended the meeting said that a panel would be formed to select these doctors and participation would be voluntary. Only those with exceptional merit will be retained based on the committee’s selection, which was a key topic during today's preliminary discussions.

The state governments of West Bengal and Assam have also raised the retirement age of government doctors from 67 to 70 years.

(Rehash/Lavanya Beeraboina/MSM)