Bengaluru: In a new initiative to fight shortage of doctors in government hospitals, the state government now allows private specialists to work as ‘doctors on call’ in government hospital, along with their private practice.
In addition, those with postgraduate medical qualifications can serve fulltime at the government hospitals on contract basis with an honorarium of Rs. 1 lakh a month.

Speaking about the same, Minister for Health UT Khader said that doctors with post  graduation can work for two days in government hospitals.

The government will give them an honorarium of Rs. 10,000 a month. They will also get consultation fee from the government on the basis of the number of patients they have attended, he said adding that the rider is that they should be available on call to attend to patients.

The doctors opting to work as full-timers will get honorarium of Rs. 1.25 lakh a month if they work in the backward region of Hyderabad Karnataka, the Minister said.

Meanwhile, the ones with an MBBS degree can work on contract basis at government hospital for honorarium of Rs 40,000 per month.

The Minister also said that the state is contemplating to vacate the stay order issued by the Karnataka High Court on implementation of the compulsory rural service norm for medical students.

Accordingly, the MBBS, diploma and postgraduate medical students, who volunteer for rural service, can contact the Health and Family Welfare Commissioner in Bengaluru (080-22879336) to enrol themselves for serving in government hospitals. They will get an honorarium of Rs. 40,000 (MBBS) and Rs. 43,200 (PG qualification), he said.