In a surprise inspection of two Delhi government hospitals by Health minister Satyendar Jain, 132 employees were found to be absent. The minister has ordered to issue a show-cause notice to all the employees including doctors, paramedics and assistant staff.
A spokesperson of Delhi government said: “The memos are being issued to all the employees absent from the two hospitals and necessary action will be taken based on their replies”. According to a spokesperson Jain inspected Maharshi Balmiki Hospital on Wednesday in which 88 employees were not present on the duty without any prior information. In a similar inspection, earlier, the minister found that 44 employees were absent in Aruna Asif Ali Hospital in Central Delhi.
The inspection was done to check, if the doctors were on duty in the hospitals run by the government. This was also result of increase in number of complaint by the patients. A senior officer of health department, said: “These surprise inspections will continue to take place in the future to ensure doctors and employees of the hospitals are given proper services, especially the poor.”
Delhi government had earlier announced a policy to ensure doctors are available for the treatment and if unavailable they would be asked to withdraw from their clinical jobs. In pursuance of the policy the doctors are being called back to clinical assignments from non clinical assignments like medicine storage, procurement, purchase of medical instruments etc.
The government is also deploying doctors on part time and full time basis in Mohalla Clinics to bridge the gap of demand and supply. According to Health Minister around 1,000 such Mohalla Clinics will be operation by the end of this year.