Over 28 percent medical teachers posts vacant in UP medical colleges, reveals RTI
Agra: A reply to an RTI query by UP director general of medical education revealed that 28.52% posts of medical teachers or doctors are vacant in 13 Uttar Pradesh medical colleges, five autonomous medical colleges and four other medical institutions.
Further, 26 percent of doctors on duty in medical colleges of UP are not permanent staffers but were appointed on contractual basis.
For doctors and medical teachers, the total number of sanctioned posts in state government and the autonomous medical colleges is 2,791. Of these, 796 posts are vacant and 727 doctors were hired on contractual basis.
As per a recent media report in Times of India, Deepak Lavania reports that the RTI further revealed that over 56.4% of sanctioned posts of paramedical staff and technicians are lying vacant. Overall, 56.7% of group C posts, including that of technical, non-technical, clerical and stenographer, are lying vacant.
The RTI data claims, 853 of the sanctioned 1,510 posts of technician and paramedical staff are vacant. Also, 115 workers are not permanent and were appointed through outsourcing.
Moreover, 102 out of 139 posts for non-technical staff are vacant. For clerical work in medical colleges, 277 out of 477 sanctioned posts are available. A total of 30 people were hired for non-technical and clerical work through outsourcing, the RTI reply stated.
Commenting on the same, IMA central working committee member Dr Sharad Gupta told TOI, "The government is not appointing regular teachers in medical colleges of UP. In recent years, only contractual hiring has been done. These people are paid much less compared to the regular ones. Fed up with work pressure, contractual doctors often leave after 4-5 years."
"There is no government hospital in UP where the required number of doctors and paramedical staff are on duty. The situation is worse at district hospitals and health centres in rural areas. This is the situation when the number of sanctioned posts is less as compared to the requirement," Dr Gupta added.
Meanwhile, a senior doctor at Sarojini Naidu Medical College (SNMC) in Agra told the daily, "Lack of doctors and paramedical staff has been a major issue affecting the services and operations at the medical colleges of UP. We have to deal with all sorts of non-teaching and paramedical work to avoid inconvenience to patients. Junior doctors (students) remain under tremendous pressure. They struggle to find time for studies. To improve public health care services, the government first needs to fill vacancies."
SNMC principal Dr Prashant Gupta stated, "The process of appointing paramedical staff is in progress at the state level. We hope to get 500 trained supporting staff in the next few months. After the recent appointments, the number of vacant posts for medical teachers and doctors reduced to around 20% in our college. With an increase in the number of patients, we have also sent a proposal to the state government for increasing the number of sanctioned posts in different categories.
