Meghalaya’s health budget, as a proportion, is the highest of any state in the country, Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma said today as evidence of his government’s commitment to improving the sector.
He was speaking at an event where 425 newly-inducted junior specialists, medical officers and dental surgeons were handed their appointment letters by the Health Department.
On strengthening the health sector, the CM stated that health has been given priority with close to 8 percent of the total state budget earmarked for it. “The budget for the Health Department is the highest in the country as we aim to strengthen and overhaul the health sector,” he added.
Talking about problems with recruitment in government departments, Sangma said, “We have segregated the recruitment process by establishing a board for education and health, which has simplified the process. In the past, the recruitment process was tedious and, in some cases, it even took six years (for recruitment). The decision to create a separate recruitment board for education and health has ensured that the process for recruitment was speeded up and vacancies could be filled up.”
Meghalaya has a problem enticing medical professionals to work in remote rural locations. Even those who receive subsidies to study medicine and are therefore required to serve a period in a government healthcare institution after graduation, often choose to ignore their commitment if they have to serve in such places.
Partially to mitigate that, the CM informed that administrative housing units are being set up across Meghalaya for medical professionals so that infrastructure is available even in the remotest corners. “Rather than having separate housing complexes for different departments, the government has envisioned creating a housing complex to accommodate doctors, engineers and other government servants within the same complex,” Sangma added.
He also informed that in the next few years, primary and community health centres (PHCs and CHCs) as well as hospitals will get a facelift. “The process has started and within this term of the government we shall be able to complete and upgrade our health infrastructure”.
