Bureaucracy not obeying: Delhi Govt to High Court on ‘dismal health infra’
Samad Hoque
New Delhi, February 5
The Delhi Government today flagged significant shortages of specialists and paramedics in hospitals in the Capital, attributing delays in key appointments to a “disobedient bureaucracy”. The government urged the court to issue directions to the health secretary to address the matter within 30 days.
Delhi Govt on doc appointments
- On June 6, 2023, and January 2, 2024, the Health Minister requested the LG to use his good offices for ensuring that vacant posts are filled by UPSC at the earliest or doctors recruited on contract until then
- Delhi Health Minister urges HC to direct Secretary, Health, to comply with his directions and submit report in 30 days
In a status report submitted to the Delhi HC, which had criticised the AAP-led state government for gaps in health infrastructure last week and requested a factual report, state Health Minister Saurabh Bhardwaj today revealed a staggering 39 per cent vacancy rate in hospital specialties. This indicates that nearly 4 in every 10 sanctioned specialist posts are currently vacant.
The report was submitted a day after Delhi LG VK Saxena, in a letter to CM Arvind Kejriwal, highlighted the dismal state of health infrastructure in the Capital. The report by the ruling AAP government to the High Court today shows that there is no doctor available in the following key specialties — paediatric surgery, blood banks, biochemistry and public health. These four areas have reported a 100 per cent vacancy of specialists, with all sanctioned posts lying vacant.
Vacancy rates in other key specialties are also very high — 79 per cent in radiology, 67 per cent in pulmonology, 49 per cent in medicine and 41 per cent in general surgery. Out of 47 sanctioned specialist posts in orthopaedics, 19 are vacant. Same is the case with general duty medical officer posts where 282 of the 1,318 posts are vacant; of the 41 dental surgeon posts, 25 are vacant. Vacancy rate among paramedics (nurses, pharmacists, OT technicians and lab technicians) is 23 per cent.
Importantly, following the court’s criticism last week regarding the death of a man who was turned away by three city hospitals due to a shortage of ICU beds or CT scan equipment, the report admitted, “despite the Comprehensive Maintenance Contract for the CT scan machine in GTB Hospital being valid till September 2024, the CT scan machine in the hospital was out of order from December 21, 2023, to January 23, 2024”. The man in question died in January.
Bhardwaj stated in the report that the bureaucracy was not obeying him, and the health secretary had not attended a “single meeting called last year to fix infrastructure and vacancy issues”. “Many schemes under the Health Department were stalled due to non-payment to private hospitals, labs and non-payment of remuneration to doctors in mohalla clinics. No action has been taken to fill the vacant sanctioned posts of doctors and paramedics on a contractual basis, as a result of which services in almost all Delhi government hospitals are compromised,” the report says. It adds that despite several directions and reminders by the Delhi Minister of Health, the Finance Department and Health Department “have not taken any substantial action to provide sustainable solutions to the pending issues”.
Citing non-compliance by the Secretary, Health, to the directions of the Health Minister, the report has urged the HC to “direct the Secretary, Health, and Principal Secretary, Finance, to comply with the Health Minister’s directions and submit all action taken reports within the next 30 days”.
