Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, Aug 13: Asking recruiting agencies to prioritize selections for all pending vacancies in Health & Medical Education Department, Governor N N Vohra today called for drawing a policy framework to overcome the acute and recurring human resource shortage in this critical sector.
“The Public Service Commission (PSC) should expedite the recruitment for the posts of Medical Officers and Faculty Positions for new Medical Colleges and ensure their completion before end of November this year, if not earlier”, the Governor observed at a high-level meeting convened here this afternoon to take a holistic review of the human resource position in the State’s Health and Medical Education sector.
Chairman J&K Public Service Commission, Latief-u-Zaman Deva, Advisors to Governor, B B Vyas, K Vijay Kumar and Khurshid Ahmad Ganai; Chief Secretary BVR Subrahmanyam; Principal Secretary Finance, Navin K Choudhary; Principal Secretary to Governor, Umang Narula; Principal Secretary Planning, Development & Monitoring, Rohit Kansal and Principal Secretary Health & Medical Education, Dr Pawan Kotwal attended the meeting.
Taking serious note of the chronic shortage of Faculty in the Medical Colleges and Super-Specialty Hospitals, Vohra called for working out policy interventions to deal with this important issue. He asked the Chief Secretary to bring up a comprehensive policy framework in this regard.
The Governor reiterated his earlier direction regarding urgent constitution of a Committee of officers and experts, which will oversee all issues related to the operationalization of all five new Medical Colleges.
Responding to Chairman JKPSC’s difficulty regarding the lack of adequate manpower in the Commission, the Governor asked Chief Secretary to urgently post the required personnel to ensure time bound selections.
Regarding the filling up of para-medical vacancies in new Medical Colleges, the Chairman SSB was asked to urgently reconcile 1895 referred vacancies with the Finance Department so that the selection process is started on immediate basis.
The Governor called for putting all the requisite infrastructure and human resource in place for the new Medical Colleges, coming up at Anantnag, Baramulla, Doda, Kathua and Rajouri well before the MCI’s visit so that the academic courses in these colleges can start as per schedule next year. He asked the Chief Secretary to regularly examine imposition of condition for the passing out graduates of these new Medical Colleges to work in the State for prescribed periods after Graduation.
Vohra called for conducting regular Departmental Promotion Committee (DPC) meetings to ensure filling up of promotion quota vacancies.
Regarding vacancies in the Government Medical Colleges and Super-Specialty Hospitals, the meeting was informed that JKPSC needs to urgently complete the selection process of the already referred 158 posts of Lecturers of GMCs /SSHs to make the Super Specialty Hospitals fully functional and to fill the posts of Lecturers in the GMCs to meet the norms laid down by Medical Council of India.
The meeting was informed to meet the deficiency of doctors in the State. Health & Medical Education Department is in the process of referring around 1200 posts of Medical Officers, in addition to 99 posts of Consultants already referred to JKPSC, for recruitment.
In respect of Indian System of Medicine, the meeting was informed that 115 posts of Medical Officers including 60 in Ayurveda; 39 in Unani and 16 in Homoeopathy stand referred to JKPSC for recruitment.
About non-gazetted vacancies in the Health Department, the meeting was informed that 484 posts-262 vacancies from Directorate of Health Services Kashmir and 222 from Directorate of Health Services Jammu- have been referred to the SSB for recruitment.
Similarly, the SSB needs to expedite the selection of 645 posts of the GMCs and SSHs already referred.
The meeting was briefed that to cater to the patient care effectively, creation proposals of H&ME Department involving 1622 posts with an annual financial implication of Rs 4656.96 lakh are pending with the Finance Department.
It was stated that the creation proposals are important as the H&ME Department of the State sector caters to 99% of the Outpatient Care (OPD), 97.5% of the Indoor Patients Care (IPD) and 91% of the total institutional deliveries in the State.
The Governor asked the Principal Secretary Health and Medical Education to reconcile fresh creations with the Principal Secretary Finance so that a consensus decision is taken on the issue.
Director General Health Services Kashmir, Director Health Services Jammu, Principals of Government Medical Colleges Srinagar & Jammu, Director National Health Mission and other concerned officers also attended the meeting.
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