Bengaluru, (DHNS): With over a 1,000-odd vacancies, a shortage of specialist doctors has arisen in government hospitals across the state.

The state has around 1,200 vacancies for specialist doctors in government hospitals, including district hospitals and taluk hospitals.

The online bidding for doctors is still under progress, according to sources from the department of health and family welfare. The department is yet to finalise the numbers of doctors for service in rural areas.

Dr Ratan Kelkar, mission director, National Health Mission, department of health and family welfare, said all the vacant posts cannot be filled unless more applicants come forward. Sources in the department said applications were issued for hospitals in only 15 districts. They need to be issued for 15 more districts.

"The recruitment is going on. We need to have discussions with these doctors regarding their posting and salary," said Dr P L Nataraj, director, department of health and family welfare.

Dr H Veerabhadrappa, president of the Karnataka Medical Council (KMC), said compulsory rural service was now applicable only for doctors graduating out of government institutions.

"There are around 20,000 doctors graduating out of private institutions, while the number is 3,000 to 4,000 for government institutions. If at least 10,000 doctors graduating out of private institutions work in the government sector, it will help to mitigate the shortage," he said.

He said the KMC had around 60,000 doctors registered with it, for a population of around six crore people.

Dr B P S Murthy, registrar of KMC, said, "there is currently a stay by the court with regard to cases related to compulsory rural service. If that was not there, we would have had at least 3,000 doctors passing out every year, to serve patients in rural areas."