Ranchi: The health, medical education and family welfare department will recruit 306 specialist doctors through a bidding process to fill vacancies in govt healthcare facilities across the state.Advertisements for the recruitment were issued on Thursday, with the application process scheduled to begin on Oct 8 and continue until Oct 31.The hiring drive includes 200 non-teaching specialist medical officer posts and 106 specialist medical officer posts for district hospitals, sub-divisional hospitals, referral hospitals and community health centres where specialist positions are vacant.The recruitment comes amid a severe shortage of doctors and hospital infrastructure in Jharkhand. Additional chief secretary (health) Ajoy Kumar Singh, speaking on the concluding day of the two-day Jharkhand Digital Health Conclave on Thursday, said the state needed nearly 1.1 lakh hospital beds against the existing 28,000.He also said Jharkhand required around 40,000 doctors to meet the doctor-patient ratio prescribed by the World Health Organisation. The state currently has about 7,000 MBBS doctors.On Sept 16, World Patient Safety Day, health minister Irfan Ansari had told TOI that the department planned to recruit 2,000 specialist doctors within six months.National Health Mission (Jharkhand) director Shashi Prakash Jha said the 200 non-teaching specialist posts would cover anaesthesiology, dermatology, ENT, forensic medicine, obstetrics and gynaecology, ophthalmology, orthopaedics, paediatrics, pathology, general medicine, psychiatry, radiology and surgery.The 106 specialist medical officer posts will cover anaesthesiology, dermatology, ENT, obstetrics and gynaecology, ophthalmology, orthopaedics, general medicine, psychiatry, radiology and surgery.Applicants must hold postgraduate degrees or diplomas from institutions recognised by the National Medical Commission and have valid registration with the appropriate medical council.Candidates can bid for a maximum of three facilities in a single application and must quote separate monthly remuneration for each. The quoted amount cannot exceed Rs 3 lakh per month.The appointments will be contractual and will continue until regular specialist medical officers are posted at the respective facilities.
