CM holds review meeting on shortage of staff in Health dept

NEW DELHI: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday convened a review meeting on the shortage of staff in the health department. The Chief Minister went through the list of vacancies in different hospitals and discussed it with the Health Minister and other officials.

After the meeting, the Chief Minister directed that all the vacant posts must be filled on a contract basis until the permanent hiring process is completed through government agencies.

He was of the view that patients should not suffer because of the shortage of staff due to time being taken by agencies to hire them on a permanent basis. The review meeting was also attended by the Health Minister Satyendra Jain and other senior officials of the health department.

The Chief Minister has set a deadline of September 15 for filling up all the vacancies. The vacancies include those of pharmacists, nursing staff, radiographers, lab assistants, technicians, operation theatres (OT) assistants, physiotherapists and sanitary inspectors among others.

The health sector has got a major fillip since the present government came to power in 2015. However, the shortage of staff has been ailing the sector for long as hiring could not be done due to several reasons.