Avtar Bhat
JAMMU, July 13: Notwithstanding the Government claims of opening five new Medical Colleges in the State, the Jammu Medical College Super Specialty Hospital and other District Hospitals in the region are being run on adhoc system as they are facing acute shortage of doctors.
According to available figures with Excelsior, 128 posts of doctors including, Professors, Associate Professors, Assistant Professors, Lecturers, Registrars, Assistant Surgeons etc are vacant in the Super Specialty Hospital Jammu which has the total sanctioned strength of 187 posts of doctors.
According to sources, many posts of doctors including Surgeon Specialists, Dermatologists, Physicians, Radiologists, Orthopedic Surgeons, Assistant Surgeons etc are lying vacant in district hospitals all over Jammu region with the Health and Medical Education Department totally sleeping over the issue.
Sources said the height of things is that though Samba was been given the District status a decade back, the Samba hospital is still awaiting the District Hospital status though the issue was raised many times in the past too but to no avail.
Sources while questioning the Government claims to open new Medical Colleges in the State especially in far flung areas said there is dearth of doctors in almost all the districts of Jammu region. When the Government is not in a position to provide the adequate staff in the already existing hospitals, the prestigious Super specialty Hospital Jammu is facing shortage of 68 percent doctors and District Hospitals are also running with shortage of doctors what is the fun of opening more and more Medical Colleges in the State, is a million dollar question.
Due to the lack of doctors patients are forced to shift to the private medical institutions either within Jammu region or outside the State, sources said, adding the concerned Ministry though fully aware of the problem have never taken concrete steps in filling up the vacant posts to improve the work culture in the State hospitals. The dearth of doctors is adversely affecting the patient care and treatment in the hospitals and has been a cause of attendants’ and doctors’ clash at many occasions which even results into public resentment, sources added.
The attendants accompanying the patients for treatment often claimed that doctors don’t take proper care but due to lack of manpower they are overburdened with the work due to which patients can’t get proper care and treatment, said a doctor on the condition of anonymity.
Sources said one can imagine that what care the doctors in Super Specialty can take of the patients when it is facing the shortage of about two third of total strength of doctors.
As per figures, Cardiology Department of GMC’s Super Specialty Hospital has two sanctioned posts of Lecturers and both are vacant while all the four sanctioned Assistant Surgeon posts are also lying vacant. In the Cardio Vascular & Thoracic Surgery of Super Specialty Hospital there is one sanctioned post of Associate Professor which is vacant while out of three sanctioned posts of lecturers, one is vacant.
In Neurology Department which has one sanctioned post of Professor, Associate Professor, Assistant Professor, Lecturer and all are lying vacant while out of four sanctioned Assistant Surgeons posts, two are vacant.
In Neurosurgery, both sanctioned posts of Professor and Associate Professor are lying vacant while out of two Lecturers posts in the same Department one is vacant. Besides, all the three posts of Registrars in the same Department are also vacant while out of four Assistant Surgeons two have not been filled up so far.
The Department of Nephrology has one each sanctioned post of Professor, Associate Professor, Assistant Professor and Lecturer and they are all lying vacant while out of three posts of registrars in the same Department two are vacant. The Department has also four sanctioned posts of Assistant Surgeons out of which one is vacant.
The Urology Department is being handled by one Assistant Professor while posts of Professor, Associate Professor and Lecturer are lying vacant. Out of three posts of Registrars, two are vacant while the Department also faces shortage of two Assistant Surgeons out of four sanctioned posts.
In Anesthesia Cardiothoracic, both sanctioned posts of Professors and Assistant Professors are vacant while out of two Registrars one is vacant and out of four Assistant Surgeons three have been filled up while one is vacant. The Department is run by a single lecturer at present.
The Urology Anesthesia faces shortage of one Associate Professor, One Assistant Professor, one Registrar and three Assistant Surgeons. The position is more worst in Neurosurgery Anesthesia where all the posts of Professor, Associate Professor, Assistant Professor, Lecturer, Registrars and Assistant Surgeons are lying vacant.
Same is the case with Clinical Haematology where posts of Professor, Associate Professor, Assistant Professor and Lecturer are lying vacant. However, out of three sanctioned posts of Registrars in the Department two have been filled while one is still lying vacant.
The case is in no way better in Surgical Gastro Entrology where all posts of Professor, Associate Professor, Assistant Professor, Lecturer, Registrars and Assistant Surgeons are lying vacant. Besides, one post of each of Professor, Associate Professor, Assistant Professor and Lecturer the Department has three sanctioned posts of Registrars and four posts of Assistant Surgeons.
The position is also not better in Plastic Surgery Department where the post of Professor, Associate Professor and Assistant Professor are lying vacant while out of three sanctioned posts of registrars two are also vacant. The Department is run by one Lecturer and one Registrar with the Assistance of four Assistant Surgeons.
In the Department of Pediatric Surgery both posts of Professor and Associate professor as well as lecturer are lying vacant. While out of four Assistant Surgeons three are vacant. The Department is run by one Assistant Professor. In Medical Gastero Entrology all the three posts of Professor, Associate Professor and Assistant Professor are lying vacant while out of two registrars one is also vacant. The Department is handled by one Lecturer with the help of a Registrar and four Assistant Surgeons.
In Surgical Oncology all four posts of Professor, Associate Professor, Assistant Professor and Lecturer are lying vacant. Besides, out of four sanctioned posts of Assistant Surgeons two are also vacant and the Department is handled by two Registrars only. In the Department of Endocerology all the four posts of Professor, Associate Professor, Assistant Professor and Lecturer besides four Assistant Surgeons are lying vacant. The Department is handled by a single Registrar while it has two sanctioned posts of Registrar also.
In the Department of Pulmmery Medicines both posts of Associate Professor and Lecturer are lying vacant and it is being handled by two Registrars only. In Medical Oncology all posts of Professor, Associate Professor, Assistant Professor, Lecturer as well as Registrars are lying vacant. While out of four sanctioned posts of Assistant Surgeons three are also lying vacant. The Department is handled by a single Assistant Surgeon.
The situation is more disturbing in the Department of Pediatric Surgery Anesthesia which has all posts of Associate Professor, Assistant Professor, Lecturer as well as two posts of Registrars and four posts of Assistant Surgeons vacant. Besides, all the five sanctioned posts of duty officers are also vacant.
Sources said the successive Governments failed to solve the issue to put the Health and Medical Education System on rails in the State and instead tried to run it on adhoc system. The super specialists don’t like to join services in the State as they are fed up with the system said a doctor on anonymity. He said a doctor with MCH in plastic surgery was posted in a remote area some years back which compelled him to resign and join private hospital outside J&K. When the bureaucrats and politicians don’t know the value of higher qualification and harass the highly qualified doctors they prefer to work outside State.
The situation is also disturbing in district Kathau where alone 161 posts of doctors are lying vacant. As per official figures in Kathua Katuha tehsil alone 30 posts of doctors are vacant out of 50. Besides 271 posts of para medical assistants are vacant in District Kathua also.
In Samba district about 30 percent posts of doctors and para medical staff are vacant.
In Udhampur district 15 posts of specialists are lying vacant besides one post of ISM doctor is also vacant. The district also faces shortage of assistant surgeons etc.
In Kishtwar district, according to official sources, 70 percent posts of doctors are lying vacant. In Rajouri district out of 235 posts of doctors 79 have been filled up while rest are vacant and out of 106 posts of doctors working under NHM in the district 93 have been filled up while rest are vacant. In Rajouri district hospital alone out of 53 sanctioned posts of doctors 26 are lying vacant while in Reasi district out of 90 posts of doctors 59 are lying vacant and in NHM out of 56 sanctioned posts 19 are lying vacant.
However, when contacted the Director Health, Dr Gurjeet Singh said that they have referred 300 posts of Assistant Surgeons to PSC and they will be filled up soon to fill up the vacant posts in Health Services.
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