For years, hundreds of doctors who won scholarship under the government quota have not provided the compulsory service of two years. Some doctors have fled overseas and others are serving in private hospitals and nursing homes.[break]
The government is working to recoup Rs 3.5 million per doctor who evaded compulsory service.
“We had already started the process of recouping funds invested by the government on MBBS students,” ministry Spokesperson Janardan Nepal said. “But the stay order of the apex court a few months ago has slowed the process.”
Despite the stay order, the government is collecting details of doctors who have evaded compulsory service.
According to a source at the ministry, the names of service-evaders will soon be made public through the ministry´s website. The ministry has already collected the names of hundreds of service evaders.
It has been mandatory for individuals studying medicine under government scholarship to provide service at government hospitals and health centers since 2005.
“Hundreds of millions will come to the state coffers if we can recoup expenditure from all the students who evaded service,” an official at the ministry said on condition of anonymity.
“Students who are awarded scholarship have to serve at government health institutions. Government scholarship is not a lottery without an obligation,” he stated.
While students studying at the Institute of Medicine (IOM), Maharajgunj, were exempted of the compulsory service requirement even after the 2005 policy amendment, they were also included in the provision from 2009.
But students who study under government scholarship at BP Koirala Institute of Health Sciences (BPKIHS) are still exempted.
Doctors who study medicine under the government scholarship scheme are generally sent to primary health centers during the compulsory service period, said Lekhnath Ghimire, section officer working at Department of Health Services (DoHS). But the DoHS has been unable to send the doctors to many centers in far-flung villages due to shortage of doctors.
Every year, more than 250 receive MBBS scholarship. But at the moment, there are just 350 doctors providing the compulsory service.
Students have to contact of the Ministry of Education within three months after completion of their study. If the government cannot find placement for a doctor within a year, the doctor is no longer compelled to provide the compulsory service.
The ministry is also listing the names of engineering and nursing students who evade compulsory service.
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