New Delhi: Over 7,000 vacancies are lying vacant for doctors in rural areas across the country since last year, the parliament was informed on Friday.
“According to the Rural Health Statistics, 2011, there were 7,246 vacant positions for doctors in primary health centres (PHCs) across the country,” Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare Sudip Bandyopadhyay told the Lok Sabha.
PHCs and community health centres (CHCs) are the pulse of National Rural Health Mission (NRHM), the seven-year-old flagship programme launched to provide accessible healthcare in rural and remote areas.
According to the union health ministry, India has over 23,000 PHCs and nearly 4,800 CHCs.
“There are 3,880 positions vacant for specialists in CHCs,” Bandyopadhyay added in his reply.
In diagnostics, there were 3,525 vacancies for lab technicians. [Source: IANS]
The vacancy position of staff at Sub Centres, Primary Health Centers (PHCs) and Community Health Centers (CHCs) across the country as per Rural Health Statistics in India, 2011 is as under:
| S.No. | Name of Post | Name of Health Centre | Sanctioned | Vacant |
| 1 | Doctor | PHCs | 30051 | 7246 |
| 2 | Specialist | CHCs | 9831 | 3880 |
| 3 | Doctors | CHCs | 12631 | |
| 4 | Health Assistants (Female)/LHV | PHCs | 23182 | 7870 |
| 5 | Pharmacist | PHC & CHCs | 24460 | 4775 |
| 6 | Lab Technicians | PHC & CHCs | 16153 | 3525 |
| 7 | Nursing Staff | PHC &CHCs | 63325 | 13217 |
| 8 | Health Worker [Female]/ANM | SC &PHC | 177103 | 8835 |
| 9 | Radiographer | CHCs | 2806 | 957 |
| 10 | Health Worker [Male] | SCs | 83241 | 35123 |
It is equally important to know now how many teaching faculty positions are not filled in various medical colleges.
The number of seats have been increase considering the demands of the doctors as well as opportunity required for the deserving All India Entrance test successful competitors.
There are states like BIhar where the senior residents do not get opportunity to get promoted or appointed at the faculty position and they remain senior residents even after eight years and when they become middle aged.
The Assistant professors and Associate professors are simply not promoted and have no time bound promotion so that the senior posts are filled on time. Assistant professors and Associate professors have not been promoted for 15 and 20 years as they retire as Associate professor.
One medical college has been profusely in print and electronic media news in BIhar . The facts are reveling, there is no professor in pediatrics department and the M.D. is being doled out.
Same is the situation in many other departments. This is purely due to policy defect that there is no time bound promotion.
some feel that because the private practice is rampant in Bihar medical colleges the policy makers are indifferent towards promoting them as they feel that teachers in the medical college do not teach but spend more time in their private clinics and use P.G. residents as assistants in their nursing home rather than allowing them to attend OPD and ward work. This can be substantiated on the main roads where these medical college practicing doctors have reflected them selves as ‘Seniors” medical college faculty. State machinery is unable to crack this nut.
What has been shown in print and electronic media for last two days , with regards to Darbhanga Medical College inspection needs to be reviewed in thoroughness and state Govt. be given proper directives to fill the post in these legendry medical colleges as well as ban private practice from immediate effects so that the condition of the hospital that was termed as KABADKHANA GARBAGE Dump can be changed. The whole medical college and its departments are shown virtually floating in Sewer that is collected every where ,including the central sterilization department. Ward building are on verge of collapse . Casuality OPD and ward and many departments have no infrastructure worth its name. The OTs are worst than slaughter houses, no hygiene , no OT protocol is observed . Sewer flows in the centra sterilisation, so is gt situation of most of the wards and the zones that should be out of zone.The medical college has ample of acres of lands abd soak pits can be answer to these wewer stagnation that is seen in every department This is what has appeared in the media about a teaching institution that is going to conceptualise the future generation of doctors..
and similar picture is alleged for other medical colleges such as one in Saharasa etc also.
Status of Medical Colleges in India should be reviewed on the lines of PHCs and corrective measures taken either by direct action or through state governments in a strict time bound manner.