VIJAYAWADA: Andhra Pradesh would get an additional workforce of nearly 4,500 house surgeons for Covid duty by the first week of May. The state health sector is overburdened with Covid-related work from March last year, when the first wave of the pandemic started.
Amid the onset of the second wave, medical education authorities have requested NTR University of Health Sciences to expedite evaluation of the answer scripts and announce the results of MBBS final-year exams by the last week of April.
There are 30 government and private medical colleges in the state with an intake of 4,660 students. In case a few students fail in the final exams, nearly 4,500 students are expected to clear the final exams.
Medical education authorities are making efforts to get temporary registration of AP Medical Council for these students so that they can be absorbed in the colleges/hospitals as house surgeons and their services utilised for Covid work.
Doctors along with health personnel are involved in a series of works ranging from Covid-19 tests, providing treatment to the infected patients and in the vaccination process. With an upward trend in the caseload, doctors are paying more attention to treatment.
In addition to this, the state government has permitted the health authorities to recruit young doctors on a temporary basis for a period of three months to avail their services for Covid wards on the lines of an earlier practice during the first wave of the pandemic. This would enable them treat the virus-infected patients at Covid Care Centres and also at Covid hospitals in the state.
AP director of medical education Dr M. Raghavendra Rao said, “We have requested the NTR University to declare the results of the MBBS final year students early so that we can get nearly 4,500 qualified doctors to work as house surgeons and attend to Covid duty. As young doctors are also going to be recruited for three months to attend to Covid work, we expect the additional workforce to help us handle the Covid pandemic effectively.”
