Shillong, Sept 5: Health Minister Ampareen Lyngdoh on Tuesday said sponsored MBBS doctors have to pay Rs 30 lakh while specialist doctors Rs 1 crore as penalty bond if they fail to serve in the state.
Lyngdoh said, “If you are forfeiting and not coming back to your state to practice you have to pay or repay back the bond…There is a recommended slab by the Government of India. I am told it has been revised to Rs 30 lakh for an MBBS doctor and Rs 1 crore for a specialist doctor.”
Speaking to reporters, she said bonded doctors not willing to serve in the state is not a new discussion and that is why the health department has come up with the Meghalaya Medical Council (MMC) to address the issues concerning this problem and the shortage of doctors in the state.
“Right now, any doctor who is clearing the MBBS course, goes to another state for procurement of license. Henceforth, because we have our own medical council, all doctors in the state of Meghalaya will have to register with the council,” Lyngdoh said.
“The moment we send you out you are a sponsored candidate, your name already goes in and you have to firstly come back to this medical council to register and take your practicing license,” she said.
“Now that we have our own medical council, they will sit and they will engage and they will review all these matters and in fact without sharing with the media we have already taken some preliminary actions and we will now be stringent,” she added.
Lyngdoh said many doctors have now registered with the Meghalaya Medical Council.
USTM seeks Rs 200 cr loan from govt
The University of Science & Technology, Meghalaya ( USTM) is seeking Rs 200 crore as loan from the state government to start a medical college in Ri Bhoi.
Lyngdoh said the state government will sign memorandum of understanding (MoU) with USTM for setting up of a private medical college in Ri Bhoi district.
“Those modalities are now being designed and worked out and then MoU has to be signed,” Lyngdoh said.
She said USTM had requested the state government to provide them Rs 200 crore as loan for fast tracking all infrastructures to set up a 400-bed institution. The university has offered to provide 40 medical seats to Meghalaya.
“As of today, the USTM is the only institution which is likely to have an operational medical college in a very short period of time. We need the seats as we need to increase the college of doctors in the state in view of the fact that we don’t have enough doctors in the state.”
She said Meghalaya has been allotted only 94 MBBS seats and already it is facing a lot of problems with controversies.
