Odisha Has 44% Doctor Posts Lying Vacant, Says Govt

Cuttack: The Odisha government has told the Orissa High Court that there are 44 per cent doctor post vacancies in various district headquarter hospitals, periphery hospitals, community health centres and primary health of the state. The state government filed an affidavit regarding the same on Wednesday.

According to the affidavit, Special Secretary (Medical Services) Dr Dinabandhu Panda said that a total of 8,546 medical officers’ posts have been sanctioned in the Odisha Medical Health Services (OMHS) cadre. The number includes 5,838 general duty medical officers and 2,708 specialist medical officers.

According to Panda, there are 3,523 vacancies of general duty medical officers in the OMHS cadre while 2,315 are currently employed as on December 7. As far as specialist medical officers in the OMHS cadre are concerned, 1,211 posts are lying vacant while 1,497 are employed, reported The New Indian Express.

The affidavit was filed when the court took stock of the number of vacancies while adjudicating social activist and lawyer Chittaranjan Mohanty’s PIL in 2018.

According to an earlier affidavit filed by Additional Chief Secretary of Health department, Raj Kumar Sharma, there were 1,985 vacancies of medical officers in the OMHS cadre with 6,744 medical officers employed against a total sanctioned strength of 8,729 positions.

It may be recalled that the Court had on November 17 sought a detailed affidavit.

The fresh affidavit also provided a breakup of vacancies of general duty medical officers in a few districts. Ganjam (226), Mayurbhanj (165), Sundargarh (129) and Balangir (125) show a higher number of vacant posts.

The vacancies of specialist medical officers in Mayurbhanj (117), Sundargarh (90), Koraput (78) and Ganjam (69) were also provided.

The division bench comprising Chief Justice S Muralidhar and Justice AK Mohapatra posted the matter for further hearing on January 8.

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