In a significant move to strengthen healthcare in the government-managed hospitals, the state government Friday claimed that 500 vacant posts of doctors are to be filled till December this year.
The government had revealed in the legislative assembly that there are over 2200 vacancies of doctors in hospitals run by directorate of Health Service as well as those under the Srinagar and Jammu government Medical Colleges.
“Government is taking all steps to fill doctor posts which have fallen vacant in the state. We have referred the post of doctors to the Public service commission. It is a good thing to say that 500 posts of doctors are to be filled till December this year, “Bali Bhagat health and medical education minister told KNS over phone.
The Minister added that the chairman of the Public service commission has assured that the selection list of the candidates will be submitted to the government by December this year.
The Minister said that government is giving top priority to the health sector, where it is committed to provide all facilities to people. “Government is trying hard to fill other posts in the government hospitals with a view to extending the best health care to the poor in the government hospitals,” Bali maintained.
Commenting on the issue of private practice of doctors, the minister revealed that the ban is confined to HoDs only and that there is no such order regarding the ban on the other government doctors of the state. “ See so far as private practice of doctors is concerned, let me inform you that there is no such order which allows us to ban the private practice of doctors,” the minister said but was quick to add that only the HoDs are barred from the private practice.
Meanwhile one of the top officials of the health department said that most of the vacant posts of Doctors and para medicos falling under direct quota have been referred to the recruiting agencies.
According to the government data there are over 2200 vacancies of doctors in hospitals run by directorate of Health Service as well as those under the Srinagar and Jammu government Medical Colleges.
There are 726 vacancies of doctors in the hospitals under Directorate of Health Service Kashmir.
The frontier Kupwara district with 157 vacancies tops the list having 143 doctors in place against the sanctioned strength of 296.
Another north Kashmir district Baramulla, is second on the ladder having 135 vacancies against the sanctioned strength of 385 doctors.
Kargil district in Ladakh region has 106 vacancies against sanctioned strength of 167 doctors followed by Anantnag with 80 out of 306 sanctioned posts. Kulgam has 106 doctors in position against the sanctioned strength of 167 while Leh has 51 vacant posts of doctors against the sanctioned strength of 133. Srinagar with no vacancy among 104 posts is at the bottom of the ladder, Shopian has 17 vacancies out of 70 while Ganderbal has 18 vacancies among 120 sanctioned posts. Pulwama district has 27 vacancies out of sanctioned strength of 190 doctors while Budgam has 338 sanctioned posts and 300 are in position. Bandipora district with sanctioned strength of 92 doctors has 40 vacancies.
Hospitals of Jammu province working under its health directorate have 2003 sanctioned posts of doctors and 1148 are in position. Among the 855 vacancies, Rajouri district with 144 vacancies tops the list followed by Doda district with 139, Poonch (131), Kathua (128), Udhampur (91), Ramban (72) Kishtwar (61), Reasi (60), Jammu (17) and Samba with sanctioned strength 120 doctors has only 12 vacancies.
Regarding GMC Srinagar, the government had said that there are 34 posts of professor vacant among sanctioned strength of 79, 31 vacancies of associate professors, 60 assistant professors, 157 lecturers, 63 registrars, 16 demonstrators, 90 assistant surgeons and 176 other doctors.
Regarding GMC Jammu, the government had revealed that against sanctioned strength of 391 posts in faculty, 163 are vacant while among 459 other gazetted posts, 440 are in position and 19 are vacant.