Indora: Gangath town residents demand filling vacant post of doctors

Nurpur, June 17

Residents of Gangath town in the Indora subdivision of Kangra district held a protest in front of the local Civil Hospital on Saturday against the vacant posts of doctors in the hospital.

The irate residents raised slogans against the Health Department authorities for not filling the posts, which are vacant for the past several months.

The Civil Hospital was upgraded to a 50-bed facility by the previous Jai Ram Thakur government and was notified by the government in 2020. However, only 26 indoor wards were functional. Neither additional infrastructure was created nor new post created to ensure functionality of the upgraded hospital. The hospital has five sanctioned post of doctors, but at present two female doctors are posted. One of the female doctors is reported to be proceeding on maternity leave in the first week of July.

In the absence of requisite strength of doctors, the emergency and night medical services — from 4 pm to 9am — were discontinued six months ago. While patients facing medical emergencies are the worst sufferers, resentment brews among locals from surrounding seven gram panchayats, who depend on the hospital.

The two-hour dharna was lifted after the intervention of Block Medical Officer (BMO), Nurpur. Some protesters also allegedly misbehaved with the BMO before the protest was called off. The protesters said the hospital should be locked if the state government could not fill the sanctioned post of doctors.

Sources in the hospital say nearly 130 patients visit the hospital OPD daily. Critically-ill patients are either rushed to Nurpur’s Civil Hospital or to private hospitals for indoor medical treatment.

Nurpur BMO Dilwar Singh said he had written multiple times to the higher authorities of the Health Department on the vacant post of the doctors in the hospital. Surnder Bhalla, Sharda Devi and Pawan Kumar, pradhans of Gangath, Rappad and Dagla gram panchayats, respectively, who also participated in the protest have appealed to Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu to ensure that all vacant post of doctors in the hospital are filled at the earliest.