Soon, govt to recruit over 9,000 nursing staff, 1,500 medical officers

Kolkata: In a bid to mitigate the crisis of nursing staff members and doctors in the state-run hospitals, mostly in the districts, the Bengal government has decided to recruit over 9,000 nursing staff members and around 1,500 medical officers.

According to sources in the Health department, as many as 10,000 nurses and 1,500 doctors will soon be recruited in the district and sub-divisional hospitals, as well as health centres in districts where there is still a huge staff crunch. The recruitment would be done through various phases on a priority basis.

These doctors and nursing staff members would mostly be sent to villages to develop better health infrastructure in the rural hospitals. West Bengal Health Recruitment Board may soon issue a notification to recruit the nurses and medical officers.

There is a shortage of over 10,000 nurses in various state-run hospitals and health centres in the state, sources said. The fresh recruitment of doctors will, meanwhile, address the dearth of doctors in many of the hospitals across the state.

It has been learnt that around 800 medical technicians will also be recruited. Among the medical technologists, the most vacant posts are those of ECG and critical care technicians.

There are also vacant posts of technicians at operation theaters and radio diagnostics. In some hospitals, the posts for dialysis and cath-lab technologists and audiometrists are also lying vacant, which are expected to be filled up soon.

The state Health department had sought from the government the sanction of around 1,000 new medical officer vacancies, to tide over the crisis of doctors in various hospitals and health centres.

After getting nod from the government, the health recruitment board will soon fill the vacant posts of doctors.

Some of the nurses may be recruited as community health officer (CHO) in the district and sub-divisional hospitals, where there is a shortage of doctors.

The Mamata Banerjee government has set up around 42 superspecialty hospitals in the state and improved the health infrastructure at all the government-run hospitals. The number of medical and nursing seats in the state has increased manifold as well.