Maharashtra: Four senior psychiatrists in Four Regional Mental Health Hospitals, reveals RTI data

Mumbai: Data collected through a Right To Information (RTI) have revealed the shortage of senior psychiatrists across the state-run regional mental health hospitals, as the data showed that there are four senior psychiatrists across four state-run regional mental health hospitals which treated over 7.6 lakh outdoor patients and 1.5 lakh admitted patients between 2017-21.  

There are 32 posts for psychiatrists in two grades across these four hospitals in Thane, Pune, Nagpur, and Ratnagiri in the state. The RTI was filed by the RTI activist Jeetendra Ghadge of The Young Whistleblowers Foundation, reports the Times Of India. 

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It found that there are no psychiatrists of either class 1 or 2 at the Thane Mental Hospital despite having eight sanctioned posts. Ghadge said, "It's the same story at Ratnagiri, where two sanctioned posts are vacant." Similarly, the Nagpur hospital has three psychiatrists working out of nine, while Pune has one out of 13 posts. He said, "It is shocking to consider there are so few psychiatrists to manage our mental hospitals."

However, according to the state public health officials, every mental hospital has adequate medical officers to look after patients. They are blaming the delay in periodic interviews for promotions due to bureaucratic delays.  Dr Padmaja Jogewar, in charge of the state health department's programs for non-communicable diseases, said, "We will soon conduct interviews through MPSC to fill up vacancies, but there are psychiatrists in these hospitals to care for patients." 

An estimate of the total number of psychiatrists all across the country shows that there are 6,000 psychiatrists for the country's 138 crore population. According to Ghadge, vacancies at senior level posts show that there is a "serious mental health crisis" in Maharashtra. He told TOI, "There are lakhs of new patients who cannot access treatment because of poor infrastructure and manpower crunch. Moreover, patients in these hospitals are stuck for years without rehabilitation or going back home."

Stating that the government should provide incentives for psychiatrists to take up jobs in mental hospitals, Dr Harish Shetty, attached to Hiranandani Hospital in Powai said, "For one, we could upgrade these hospitals into medical colleges so that psychiatrists will be more inclined to join. Doctors from the private sector could also be roped in to teach and treat. Public-private partnerships being attempted in other sectors should be tried here too."

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