Odisha Assembly

Bhubaneswar / Cuttack, Feb. 22: The Odisha government today admitted in the Assembly that 1,200 doctors’ posts were lying vacant in various government-run health centres and hospitals across the state.

Health minister Damodar Rout said 462 of 4,362 sanctioned posts were vacant. Besides, 207 doctors, posted in various rural and district headquarters hospitals, had gone on study leave. Another 288 doctors had joined in various government medical colleges as senior resident doctors and tutors.

Apart from these doctors, more than 200 doctors have gone on leave after joining their service.

Stating that the vacancies are basically caused because of doctors going on study leave, the minister said 525 leave reserve doctors posts had been created to address the problem.

Members from both the Opposition and the treasury benches urged for urgent measures to address the problem. “How will the health care service in the rural areas run without doctors?” asked Leader of the Opposition Bhupinder Singh.

Several members from the undivided Koraput-Balangir-Kalahandi (KBK) districts, the poverty zone of Odisha, drew the attention of the government to the gaping vacancies in their areas.

In Kalahandi, 58 doctors’ posts of 175 sanctioned strength are lying vacant. Similarly, 28 of 162 posts are falling vacant in Balangir, according to official figures.

Congress members from Balangir said more than 100 doctors remained absent. “The health department is posting doctors on deputation as a stopgap arrangement. But after a few days, they are being withdrawn,” said a Congress member.

Another Congress member Santosh Singh Saluja said poor patients were being forced to go to Vishakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh and Raipur in Chhattisgarh as there were no doctors in government hospitals in their localities.

“It has sanctioned appointment of 443 doctors on adhoc basis to immediately address the problem. Their process has begun and adhoc doctors will be posted shortly,” said Rout.

BJD member Nrusingha Charan Sahu said over 200 government doctors had proceeded on leave after joining service. He suggested the government to post doctors after counselling them, so that they would not go on leave being disappointed with their posting.

VSS loopholes

The state government has admitted in Orissa High Court that while more than 45 per cent of the doctors’ posts are lying vacant, less than 60 per cent of the equipment are functioning at the VSS Medical College and Hospital in Burla.

On February 5, the high court, after suo motu registering a PIL on the basis of a letter petition, directed principal secretary of the health and family welfare department Pradipta Kumar Mohapatra to submit an official statement “indicating the status of the hospital, more particularly about the doctors, instruments and also with regard to supply of medicines”.

Sanat Luha and 11 others of Burla had submitted the letter petition, seeking intervention against failure to provide basic infrastructure and doctors in the hospital.

Yesterday, Mohapatra filed the affidavit in which the Odisha government had admitted that there was “dearth of doctors” in almost all departments of the hospital. The affidavit, however, stated that the government was taking “sincere steps” to fill up the posts “through the selection board of the Odisha Public Service Commission”. It also stated that “steps are being taken to rectify” and make “functional” the equipment which were “not working and has some technical defects”.

Taking note of the affidavit, the division bench of acting Chief Justice Pradip Mohanty and Justice Raghubir Dash has fixed February 26 for hearing on the PIL. The court has sought the assistance of amicus curiae Pravat Ranjan Dash and Justice Jaydip Pal for a report on the ground situation at the hospital by then.

Mohapatra stated that 164 posts — nine of professors, 14 of associate professors, 80 of assistant professors and 61 of senior resident doctors — were lying vacant in the 29 departments in the facility. The number of vacancies for assistant professors is as high as nine in obstetrics and gynaecology, eight in medicine, seven in surgery, six in paediatrics, four in anaesthesiology and three in radio diagnosis.

The affidavit also has a status report on equipment available at the hospital. It indicates that 127 of the 300 equipment were of “not working” or “not functioning” or of “condemned” category. Of the 25 equipment in the cardiology department, 16 are not working.