Dealing sternly with young doctors’ reluctance to work in rural areas, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, who is also the state health minister, made it mandatory for fresh MBBS graduates to serve the first three years of their career in the interior areas of the state.
“We have to send the doctors to the rural areas of the state immediately. It will be compulsory for the MBBS graduates to treat the poor patients at the primary health centres in the villages for the first three years of their career. My government will provide them jobs,” she said at a programme after a meeting at Swasthya Bhavan in Salt Lake on Friday.
To woo the young doctors, Ms Banerjee informed that her government would bring them back after their three years’ stint. “The government will offer them facilities right from incentives to additional marks when they will pursue MD/MS for higher education,” she explained. She offered incentives to the existing government doctors, nurses and ward boys.