Blaming the Centre for dearth of doctors in the state, chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday said in the Assembly that the state government does not get sufficient doctors due to faulty policies of Indian Medical Council.
The state government has only 1,000 doctors whereas at present, the state needs more than 2,500 doctors, she said. The state government spends Rs 30 lakh on a medical student every year and after completing their study doctors do not want to work here, she said.
“We are ready to recruit doctors from abroad who want to come here and practice here,” she said. Many doctors come here to practice from other states due to better infrastructure, but the state needs more doctors to provide better services to patients, she said.
Many patients come here from other states as well for better treatment and you (the Opposition) should not try to create bedlam here, Miss Banerjee said, adding “let us execute our plan to address the problem.”
This was after Opposition MLAs, including Left Front and Congress tried to shout out her speech. Where and how you can increase the beds in state-run hospitals, she asked.
In Midnapore Medical College there are 1000 beds and the number of patient is there more than 1,500 and the doctors are working there round the clock to mitigate the problem, she said.
“Please show me one state where treatment in state-run medical hospitals is provided free of cost,”she said.
The state government during the Left Front regime had allocated Rs 800 crore in 2010- 11 fiscal budget, now during the current financial year the budget is Rs 5,000 crore, she said, adding the state will recruit around 1,000 more nurses.