Chandigarh MP seeks data on posts of doctor; not kept by Centre, replies minister

Manish Tewari, Member of Parliament, Chandigarh, has said that there are very serious gaps and inadequacies in the health infrastructure of Chandigarh. He was commenting on a reply given in Parliament by Pratap Rao Jadhav, Minister of State in the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, today on his questions regarding data of health infrastructure in Chandigarh.

Tewari had sought the information regarding the total number of sanctioned regular posts of doctors in the Health Department of Chandigarh, the date on which new posts of doctors were last created in Chandigarh and the number and categories of such posts, total number of vacancies against sanctioned posts at present, including specialty-wise details such as medicine, surgery, anaesthesia, radiology and paediatrics and the number of doctors currently working on deputation in Chandigarh.

In the reply, the minister stated that the data regarding details of sanctioned posts of doctors and specialists under the state governments/UTs were not maintained centrally.

Tewari said that it was extremely disappointing that the Government of India had started suffering from ‘selective amnesia’ and forgot that since Chandigarh was a UT and does not have a legislature, the Government of India was accountable to Parliament for the governance of Chandigarh. The short shrift that has been given to such a detailed question is indicative of the fact that there are very serious gaps and inadequacies in the health infrastructure of Chandigarh.

Of the substantial bulk of doctors, around 167 are on deputation from Punjab and Haryana. There has been hardly any local recruitment of doctors for decades now. Many critical specialties are vacant. He said that he would take up this perfunctory reply with Health Minister JP Nadda, given that the health infrastructure of Chandigarh services Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh, in addition to Chandigarh.

The minister in the reply said that the states/ UTs were to ensure availability of human resources by creating adequate number of regular posts of doctors and specialists as per the Indian Public Health Standards in the long run and using NHM posts in the short to medium term to fill critical gaps.