About half of sanctioned posts lying vacant in most of the distts
*Situation worst in hilly, accident prone areas of UT
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Feb 24: Concerned over acute shortage of doctors in almost all the districts of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, a Division Bench of the High Court of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh comprising Justice Tashi Rabstan and Justice Moksha Khajuria Kazmi has sought details of the doctors attached in Jammu city along with the action taken by the Health and Medical Education Department to fill the vacant posts.
The direction has been passed in a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) titled Balwinder Singh Versus Jammu and Kashmir and Others. When the PIL came up for hearing few days back, Deputy Director, Health and Medical Services Sanjay Sharma, who was present in person, submitted that there is a policy decision with regard to the candidates selected for the post of Medical Officers, Consultants and Specialists that either they can do Post Graduation or they can do Government jobs.
“Most of the doctors did not join the Government services. Earlier 542 candidates were selected in the Jammu province, out of which only 229 have joined”, he further submitted.
Advocate Sheikh Shakeel Ahmed appearing for the petitioner drew the attention of the Division Bench towards the latest status report filed by the Health and Medical Education Department and said that more than 50% Primary Health Centres, New Primary Health Centres and Community Health Centres are without doctors as a result of which the rural population is deprived of healthcare.
“Keeping in view submissions made by Deputy Director and Advocate Sheikh Shakeel Ahmed, we deem it appropriate to direct Amit Gupta, Additional Advocate General to file a detailed affidavit disclosing therein as to how many posts have been referred to Public Service Commission”, the DB said and also sought details of the doctors who have been attached in Jammu city besides the action taken by the respondents with regard to filling up of unfilled vacancies, with a copy in advance to PSC counsel Advocate F A Natnoo, who shall also furnish status with regard to the posts referred by the Health and Medical Education Department to the Commission by or before the next date of hearing.
Deputy Solicitor General of India Vishal Sharma sought some more time to do the needful in terms of order dated 20.12.2022 whereby the Division Bench had impleaded Union Territory of Ladakh as party respondent in the PIL and had sought availability of doctors there.
As per the latest status report, the copy of which is available with EXCELSIOR, in majority of the districts of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir about half of the sanctioned posts are lying vacant and the situation is worst in the hilly and accident prone districts.
In Doda district the sanctioned strength of Medical Officers/Dental Surgeons is 142 but at present 87 posts are lying vacant while as in Kathua district against 193 sanctioned posts 100 posts are lying vacant. Likewise, in Kishtwar district against sanctioned strength of 94, 54 posts are lying vacant and in Poonch district 93 posts are lying vacant against sanctioned strength of 162. In Rajouri district, 85 posts are lying vacant against sanctioned strength of 175. On the other side, in Jammu district against sanctioned strength of 370 doctors only 95 posts are lying vacant.
Similar is the situation in majority of the districts of Kashmir valley and this clearly indicates that people in the hilly and accident prone areas are being deprived of timely and quality healthcare, which otherwise should have been the priority of the Health and Medical Education Department.
“It is because of acute shortage of doctors in hilly areas that people prefer to get treatment in the hospitals of Jammu and Srinagar cities thereby increasing work load immensely”, sources said, adding “it is due to this worst situation that even accidents victims are referred to the city hospitals for treatment and several succumb to their injuries enroute”.
It is pertinent to mention here that in its order dated December 20, 2022, the Division Bench had observed, “Financial Commissioner, Health and Medical Education Department has filed supplementary affidavit on April 23, 2021 enclosing institution wise sanctioned strength and vacancy position in respect of duty posts of Medical Officers/Dental Surgeons as on April 30, 2021”.
The counsel for the petitioner had submitted that supplementary affidavit was filed more than a year ago and therefore there may be more vacancies and the position might have been changed. Accordingly, the DB had on December 20, 2022 directed for filing of latest status report with regard to institution-wise sanctioned strength and also to disclose the latest vacancy position.
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