BHUBANESWAR: All the tall claims of reforms and developments notwithstanding, health sector of Odisha is not exactly in the pink. Over the last half a decade, the availability of government doctors has actually slipped. The system load in government hospitals shows that doctors per lakh population have been on the decline and the fall has been sharp in the last two years. In 2005-06, doctors in government hospitals available per lakh of population stood at 12.88. It has fallen to 10.56 in 2009-10. This sorry state of affairs is pointed by the latest Economic Survey itself. With doctors either leaving the government jobs or unwilling to take up the services in the districts, the health sector of the State is in a limbo. The Odisha Government has even tried to rope in doctors on an ad hoc and contract basis to fill in the gap. Recently, it had announced incentives for the KBK stint. Needless to say, things have not improved much. The availability of government doctors was in the range of 12 per lakh till 2008-09 but showed a sudden drop to 10 in the subsequent year. The reasons are not far to seek. Against a sanctioned strength of 4,362 doctors in the State, more than 1,150 posts are lying vacant as those passing out are unwilling to join the government sector. A hassled Health Department has asked the Orissa Public Service Commission to carry out recruitments for the vacancies and it is currently in the midst of recruiting 750 doctors. As an emergency measure, the Department is making contractual appointments too. The list of ills does not end here though. Availability of beds in government hospitals has declined in the State. From 3.96 beds available for a population of 10,000 in 2005-06, it has declined to 3.76 in 2009-10. While population has grown, the number of beds in government facilities has not kept pace. In the government sector, just about 15,668 beds are available. Interestingly, while the in-patient figure has increased in government hospitals, out-patients ratio has fallen. Department sources point out that it is in the private sector where more and more people are seeking services since the infrastructure has grown over the years. Curious as it may appear, at least three districts - Malkangiri, Nabarangpur and Nuapada - have no nursing home in the private sector, the Economic Survey claims. Similarly, at least 22 districts have no private maternity homes at all.
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