Weeks after a doctors association flagged that nearly 30% of the sanctioned posts of doctors were lying vacant, Health Minister Ma. Subramanian and senior officials of the Health department on Monday said that there were 1,353 vacant posts of doctors in the Directorate of Public Health (DPH) and Preventive Medicine, 552 in the Directorate of Medical and Rural Health Services (DMS) and 1,600 in the Directorate of Medical Education (DME) and Research.
The Minister said that the Medical Services Recruitment Board’s (MRB) notification for 2,553 posts of doctors was made considering the 1,353 vacant posts in the DPH and the number of vacancies that would rise until 2026. With the MRB examination scheduled to be held on January 27, 2025, he said that this would fill the vacant posts in the directorate.
“Post graduate doctors working in the DPH would move to the DME and DMS, thereby resulting in nil vacancies in the two directorates as well. An illusion has been created recently that there is a large number of vacant posts in the department. We have been saying that there are vacancies and there are many court cases that we continue to fight. There are 38 court cases regarding recruitment for 1,066 posts of health inspectors and nearly 30 cases on the recruitment of 2,250 village health nurses,” he told reporters after a review meeting with officials of the Health department.
Continuous efforts are being taken to ensure nil vacancies in the department, he reiterated.
Asked about the number of vacancies in the DME and DMS, he said that there were 552 vacant posts in the DMS, while an official said that there were 1,600 vacant posts in DME. The vacant posts in the DME would be filled once the current batch of service PGs join; 1,100 of them would join in January, and remaining 500 in February, the official said.
The Minister said that nurses, who were recruited on a temporary basis during the COVID-19 pandemic, were being appointed to the arising vacancies in a phased manner. Accordingly, last year, 1,412 nurses were appointed on a contractual basis. In this situation, 1,271 regular posts were vacant. Counselling for these posts would be held on November 14 and 15 for those who are already working on contract and appointment orders would be issued by following rules including seniority and communal rotation.
Already, 1,418 nurses who were working on contract were brought under time scale pay since 2021, he noted. “After the 1,271 nurses take up the regular posts, there will be a remaining of 954 nurses who were recruited during COVID-19. They will be appointed on contractual basis, he said, adding that following this exercise, 300 vacant posts of nurses would remain for which measures to fill through MRB will be taken.
Health Secretary Supriya Sahu was present.
Published - November 11, 2024 06:25 pm IST
