Vacant posts at Sidhpur hospitals: HC issues notice to Gujarat Government

Sidhpur: Responding to a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) seeking the filling up of vacant posts at the hospitals in Patan district’s Sidhpur, the Gujarat High Court have issued a notice to the Gujarat government asking them to explain the reason behind the lag in appointments.  

The PIL was filed by former state health minister Jay Narayan Vyas, who was a BJP MLA from Sidhpur constituency between 2007 and 2012. He was also the cabinet minister in charge of the Department of Health and Family Welfare. Before the 2022 Assembly elections, Vyas quit the ruling BJP and joined the Opposition Congress. 

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The General Hospital and Cancer Hospital were built in 2012, and the buildings are adjacent to each other and connected by a bridge, states the PIL. The hospitals are equipped with good infrastructure, stated the PIL, adding that the state government's failure to make proper appointments have affected a number of patients from North Gujarat and Rajasthan.  

Out of the sanctioned 10 posts of doctors at the General Hospital, around five posts including a surgeon, civil surgeon, gynaecologist, and physician are vacant. The petitioner's counsel, Maqbul Mansuri, have submitted that only the OPD and orthopaedic department are running at the hospital. At the Kidney centre, around seven posts of doctors are vacant. Five posts of dialysis technicians are vacant, and all the nurses, laboratory technicians, and pharmacists are vacant as well, reports the Indian Express. 

At the cancer hospital, all the posts of doctors except for a pathologist are lying vacant and the authorities are yet to implement an MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) signed by the hospital with the Gujarat Cancer Research Institute. Meanwhile, the Ayurvedic Hospital and College associated with the General Hospital have not been functioning since 2011. Mansuri submitted photographs showing the delapidated condition of the Ayurveda hospital. The Homeopathic college only have around two visiting faculties. 

Calling the state government's action as 'a gross dereliction in the performance of statutory duties', the minister sought the court's intervention in making appointments to the vacant positions of the doctors and other positions. The notice was issued to the State of Gujarat and the Health Commissioner by the acting Chief Justice AJ Desai and Justice Biren Vaishnav.  The PIL alleged that the apathy of the administration has forced a number of patients to seek treatment at the neighbouring state of Rajasthan, as per a media report in the Times of India. 

The petitioner alleged that in 2018, he had made representations to the government urging the latter to fill the vacant positions and to implement the MoU signed with the IKDRC and GCRI in Ahmedabad but no action was taken. 

Meanwhile, the government's counsel submitted that 11 out of 12 posts for doctors in the general hospital have been filled, and six posts out of the seven posts in Cancer hospital have been filled. The lawyer submitted that there are six vacant posts out of seven in the kidney department. 

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