Bhubaneswar: Odisha government will fill up all vacant posts of doctors in its facilities by the end of 2023, said Health and Family Welfare minister Niranjan Pujari.
Speaking to media persons in Bhubaneswar on Monday, Pujari said chief minister Naveen Patnaik considers every human life precious and the government has been striving for the last two decades to not only boost health services but also improve its quality across the state.
“The health services were affected by scarcity of doctors, paramedical staff and nurses in the government hospitals. Considering this, the government set up 8 new medical colleges, two post-graduate institutes, and Odisha Health Science University besides revamping the nurse training institutes,” he said.
Now the medical colleges are producing 2200 MBBS doctors and 826 specialist doctors compared to 2000 MBBS and 254 specialist doctors in 2000. “Odisha is emerging as a surplus state in doctors and all the government health facilities across the state will have the required number of doctors by the end of this year,” he added.
The minister said considering that cancer is the most fast spreading disease, the government is going to set up 3 research-based hospitals. “In order to extend the 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 medicals outside the state,” he said.
Salini Pandit, secretary, Health and Family Welfare department, said the budget allocation for health sector has increased by 30 times from Rs 550 crore in 200o-01 to Rs 15,756 crore in 2023-24.
