Patiala, May 17 -- With the number of patients visiting government-run Outpatient Opioid Assisted Treatment (OOAT) clinics seeing a rise amid the Punjab government's anti-drug campaign, a shortage of psychiatrists and counsellors is proving to be a handicap.

There are only 45 psychiatrists for 542 OOAT clinics across the state, and many districts lack even a single psychiatrist. Similarly, with just 216 counsellors across the state, many clinics do not have a single counsellor, despite the health department's norm of two counsellors per clinic with a daily OPD count over 100.

Psychiatrists play a crucial role in monitoring the dosage of recovering drug addicts, conducting inspections of OOAT clinics, and approving the enrolment of new p...