Jammu, July 4: Health sector in Jammu and Kashmir seems to be deteriorating with each passing day, with number of vacant positions in the Health and Medical Education Department crossing over eight thousand mark.
Official sources told Greater Kashmir that from April 2002 to March 2011, 10,183 posts were created through various government orders but 8,837 posts, mostly of doctors and para-medics, were still lying vacant in various health institutions across the state.
Sources said that total of 8,837 posts are still lying vacant in Health and Medical Education department. Out of these 1494 posts are lying vacant in Gazetted rank, 5532 in Non Gazetted rank including Para-Medical Staff and 1761 of class IV level posts, including Nursing Orderlies.
Further, from April 2002 to March 2011, about 10183 posts were created in Health and Medical Education Department (5387 in Health Sector and 4805 in Medical Education Sector) but the vacant posts remained with various recruitment agencies.
These newly created posts included those of Assistant Surgeons, Dental Surgeons, B Grade Specialists, CHOs’, Medical Officers, Assistant Controller Drugs, Drug Inspectors, Physiotherapists, Health Educators, Radiographers, Clerical posts, Lab Technicians, Drivers and other para medical and Class IV posts, sources said.
On the other hand, the newly created posts in the Medical Education Department through various government orders during the span of nine years included various faculty positions like Professors, Assistant Professors, Associate Professors and Lecturers besides specialists in various departments.
A recent report by a House Committee, appointed by the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly, had also remarked that the government must ensure availability of requisite infrastructure and manpower in all the health institutions to achieve the very objective of providing healthcare to every soul in the state.
It further added that concrete steps are required to be taken to fill up the vacancies in all the health institutions of the state in order to make them fully functional there by providing adequate ‘Medicare Facilities’ to the general public, to which the state administration is committed.

Lastupdate on : Wed, 4 Jul 2012 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Wed, 4 Jul 2012 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Thu, 5 Jul 2012 00:00:00 IST