Shortage of doctors in teaching posts: Citing UPSC delays, Delhi govt advises deans to use senior residents

A total of 166 doctors’ posts are vacant in teaching hospitals under the Delhi government. The highest vacancy of 83 posts is in Maulana Azad Medical College. The University College of Medical Sciences associated with GTB Hospital has 43 vacant posts. At GB Pant Institute of Post Graduate Medical Education and Research, associated with the only super specialty hospital under the Delhi government, GB Pant Hospital, 36 posts are vacant in departments such as neurosurgery, neurology, gastroenterology, and cardiology.

Sushruta Trauma Centre, which is again the only Delhi government-run trauma surgery centre, has four teaching posts of doctors vacant. The order has advised the deans to immediately fill these vacancies. The order, issued “with the approval of the health minister”, states that senior residents who are doctors completing their postgraduate and specialised training can be absorbed in these teaching posts. “Due to existing shortage of assistant professors and delay in recruitment by UPSC, existing senior residents after completion of three years can be designated assistant professors in teaching hospitals/concerned departments,” states the order issued by deputy secretary Pradeep Kumar.

Sources said the doctors would be recruited on these teaching posts on the same remuneration drawn at the end of the third year of their senior residency. The system can be extended on the basis of performance of doctors with a maximum duration of three years.

The Federation of Resident Doctors Associations in Delhi, during strikes organised last year, had highlighted that poor doctor to patient ratio led to long working hours stretching to 36-48 hour work days, which affected doctors’ performance. In specialised disciplines in particular, such as neurosurgery in GB Pant Hospital, OPDs can be conducted on limited days, and waiting periods for surgery stretch into months, due to a shortage of doctors.

Sources said two super specialty hospitals under the Delhi government in Tahirpur and Janakpuri had not been made functional yet due to the government’s failure to appoint specialists, among other reasons.

Despite increasing hospital beds from 41,706 in 2010 to 48,096 in 2014 , an increase in bed to population ratio from 2.54 to 2.71, recruitment of doctors has not kept pace, said officials.