Government shall ensure unfilled vacancies in hospitals are filled up soon: Delhi HC

New Delhi [India], January 14 (ANI): The Government shall ensure that the vacant posts in the hospitals are filled up soon, the Delhi High Court said on January 9, while granting more time to the Centre and the Delhi government to file their respective response on a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed regarding the appointment of doctors and paramedical staffs in the Government run hospitals.

The Division Bench of Justice Satish Chander Sharma and Justice Subramonium Prasad early this week granted the time of four more weeks to the Union of India and the Government of NCT Delhi and listed the matter for April 12, 2023. “The Government shall ensure that the unfilled vacancies in hospitals are filled up at an early date”, said the bench.

The Delhi High Court had earlier issued notice to the Centre, Delhi Government and others on a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) seeking direction for the immediate appointment of doctors and paramedical staff in the Government run hospitals like AIIMS, Safdarjung Hospital, Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital etc including local bodies as well as in Mohalla clinics on urgent basis against their sanctioned vacancies.

The petitioner Dr Nand Kishore Garg through Advocate Shashank Deo Sudhi stated that there has been an acute shortage of doctors and paramedical staff in the government run hospitals which has been worsening with each passing day.

The innocent and poor patients are being denied their treatment on account of acute shortage of doctors and paramedical staffs including misinformation about the availability of relevant infrastructure and specialized doctors.

The plea also stated that the Central Government and Delhi Government had also not constituted any committee or commission to look into the aspects in areas of omission which led to the deaths of innocent citizens of NCT of Delhi and the responsible person are still enjoying their job without being held accountable to the social crime of not being able to provide the innocent citizens of the state bare minimum requirement the availability of doctors in the government hospitals.

It has been submitted in the petition that the private hospitals are taking illegal advantage at the plight of helpless patients. There are several cases where the doctors of the government hospitals are referring the patient to the private hospitals, citing lack of infrastructure in the government hospitals.

It is evident that the government hospitals are completely ill equipped to tackle the recent epidemic of coronavirus which is threating to engulf the whole population, even the protective mask and sanitizers are being black marketed across the city of Delhi and are being made available at prohibiting and exorbitant prices, it added.

The plea continued and alleged that the government is completely insensitive to the growing requirement of the quality medical services which can be reflective from the RTI reply.

“The common people are suffering on account of non-availability of doctors or paramedical staffs who are integral in providing better treatment to the patients. There is complete lack of accountability in providing the crucial services like right to life. As such it is urgently required that holistic infrastructural overhaul is necessary to improve better medical services to the patients,” the plea read.