A staggering 79 posts of doctors and paramedics are lying vacant in the Government Medical College (GMC) Anantnag.
The shortage of staff has severely hit the patient care in the hospital.
Soon after being upgraded to the medical college 249 posts of the erstwhile district hospital Anantnag were transferred to it.
However, an official document available with Greater Kashmir suggests that only 170 posts are occupied.
“The remaining 79 posts are lying vacant that include the posts of senior consultants, consultants, medical officers, and blood bank officers,” it reads.
According to the communiqué, of the seven sanctioned posts of medical officers, three are lying vacant.
In the department of medicine, of the two sanctioned senior consultant posts, both are vacant.
Similarly, in the Department of Surgery, of the two sanctioned posts of senior consultants, one is lying vacant.
In the Department of Orthopedics, of the two sanctioned posts of consultants, one is lying vacant and in the Anesthesia of the four sanctioned consultants, three are vacant.
In Ophthalmology and Eye Nose Throat (ENT), of the two sanctioned posts of consultants in each department, one post each is vacant.
In Pathology, the only sanctioned consultant post is lying vacant.
Three posts each from Urban Health Training Centers (UHTCs) and Rural Health Training Centre (RHTC) transferred from Mattan and Sagam hospitals are vacant.
A post of blood bank officers has also not been fulfilled.
In the Maternity and Child Care Hospital (MCCH), an associated hospital of GMC Anantnag; of the seven sanctioned posts of medical officers, three are lying vacant.
Furthermore, several posts of paramedics that include X-ray and lab technicians, theatre technicians, anesthesia technicians and nurses are lying vacant in GMC and its associated hospitals.
“The hospital is facing acute shortage of anesthesia technicians with five sanctioned posts lying vacant, leaving the intensive care units virtually defunct and surgical units to suffer,” an official said.
Talking to Greater Kashmir, Principal GMC Anantnag Dr Showkat Jeelani said that he had already written to the Directorate of Health for deputing their staff for the hospital.
“Many of the vacant posts have been filled and the process is on,” he said.
However, a medic said that among the newly-recruited medical officers, not a single doctor was deputed in the hospital.
“The postgraduate medical officers should have been sent to this hospital on a priority basis,” he said.
Another medic said that very rarely do they get a replacement for the doctors being transferred from the hospital by the Health department.
“Seven doctors alone were transferred from the casualty section of the GMC, and there are only four managing it now,” he said.
The medic said that even several posts of the faculty members of the medical college that include professors, associate professors and assistant professors were yet to be filled.