Tripura has the highest fatality rate within the Northeast states with 328 COVID-19 deaths. The state’s health department has recruited 75 doctors on contractual basis in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. But a majority of them have left the job, saying that they were not brave enough to do COVID duty.

A doctor who had quit said that the government called them frontline warriors as the Army and the BSF and other armed forces. But can you send them on the battlefront with a temporary job? The government has yet not recruited any junior doctors since 2018 even though there are 844 vacancies lying vacant in these last two years.

There aretwo medical colleges in Tripura: Tripura Medical College (TMC) and Agartala Government Medical College (AGMC). These two medical colleges produce around 200 MBBS students each year collectively.

The last medical officer induction has happened in March, 2018, and more than 600 medical students have passed out and since then are without government jobs. Many of them have left Tripura for contractual work in private hospitals and nursing homes somewhere else in the country. More than 400 doctors are still waiting for a call from the health department.

Few doctors are burdened with an education loan and with no steady income, the families have depleted their entire savings. The WHO standards order is of one doctor for every 1,000 people. They don’t have sufficient doctors as per sanctioned posts in Tripura.

An unemployed doctor said that his family of three survives on the pension his father gets of Rs 6,000. His family is struggling to pay their bills and the education loan instalments are piling up. Those who are studying at the government medical college have comparatively less fees but an MBBS seat in Tripura Medical College (TMC) is very expensive. TMC has revised its fee structure to Rs 54 lakhs this year, a significant increase from Rs 40 lakhs last year and Rs 18 lakhs three years ago. Doctors say that studying medicine would now remain a dream for many people with increasing fees and present situation of unemployment,

As per the data found in the state Assembly 2018, Tripura had 1,178 doctors and 2,269 nurses in service during that time, which included 1,050 allopathic doctors, 27 homeopathic doctors, 85 Ayurvedic doctors and 53 dental doctors. Vacancies for 844 medical officer posts, 827 vacancies for para-medical and technician and 956 vacancies in Multi-Purpose Workers was reported. Besides, the All Tripura Government Doctor’s Association (ATGDA) has said that 30-40 doctors retire every year.

One of the doctors who passed from AGMC this year said that all the unemployed doctors have formed an organisation called Unemployed Doctors Association of Tripura. They have placed three demands to the government that include filling the vacant posts in the state health services immediately, issuing experience certificates to all doctors who are offering voluntary services at COVID care centers and also clearing pending honorariums to these doctors.

The doctors said that they had tried to contact the Chief Minister’s Office time and again via email and phone but never got any positive response for any appointment. This directed them to write a letter to Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb.

The letter signed by more than 90 unemployed doctors and read the following:

‘In the difficult times of COVID-19 pandemic, there is an added requirement for more doctors to serve the people in this state in an suitable way to ease their health needs and to reduce the extra burden on the present doctors of the state health service.,….We would like to bring to your kind notice the matter that many of us have taken education loan, mortgaged our land along with other family assets to complete our MBBS course. Our families are facing difficulties due to the mortgages and loans we took for our studies’

ATGDA general secretary Dr. Rajesh Choudhury said that the condition of the healthcare employees is very poor. They are asking the government regularly to start new recruitments. But they came to know that the government does not have sufficient funds. They shall reiterate their demand soon. He expressed his support and solidarity towards the demands of these unemployed doctors.

Health Secretary Jitendra Kumar Sinha, who has presumed the charge recently, refused to comment on this. Officers who are below the rank of Secretary are not authorised to speak anything to the media in Tripura.

Source: The Indian Express