Himachal to trains and deploys radiologists on war footing

Health Minister Dr. Dhani Ram Shandil stated today that the state government is training and deploying radiologists in the state hospitals on a war footing. Giving a reply to a supplementary query raised by a lone woman member of assembly, Reena Kashyap, in the question hour, the minister said that the government decided to train the radiologists to level the gap of vacant posts.

Minister said that being served in the Indian Army and living up in the warfront himself assured the member that there should be two prong strategies that a driver should take some time to act as gunner. He said that the number of posts of Radiologists lying vacant and it is not possible to train radiologists  keeping their demands in the hospital .To meet the shortage of radiographers, the government would fill this shortage by making medical officers undergo a six-month bridge course in radiology in a batch of six doctors each. 

BJP MLA Dr. Janak also asked a supplementary query about whether the doctors who are being given bridge courses have gotten approval from the concerned agency. Shandil replied that he had fought many battles and, in case of emergency, a gunner also acts as a driver. The Health Minister said that Dr. Janak, who was the former Senior MS of IGMC, is right to ask this query, being associated with the medical profession and also aware of the ground reality. The minister said that a six-month bridge course to train general duty doctors as radiologists was already approved by the government of India and that the posts would be filled as part of war front measures.

Earlier raising this query, Dr. Janak Raj wanted to know how the government could deploy such radiologist doctors after they had completed six-month courses that were not approved by the MCI. The Minister stated that because the government did not have enough regular radiologists trained, it had no choice but to select six general duty doctors in batches of six each and train them for six months to make up for the shortage.

Minister also assured MLA  Reena Kashyap, who had asked that the 50-bed Sarahan Hospital does not have an ultrasound machine and patients have to come to Shimla and Solan to get an ultrasound done. He said that this is happening due to the non-availability of radiologists, and after completing the bridge course, as soon as the doctors come, this machine will be installed there.