Chennai: Govt hospitals across the state are “dangerously understaffed” with 30% of the sanctioned posts of doctors lying vacant, says the Tamil Nadu Govt Doctors’ Association. In Oct, more than 5,000 of the 18,000 sanctioned posts were vacant, it said. The situation is expected to worsen between Dec and Feb when nearly 1,000 serving doctors join postgraduate courses.
And to begin with the sanctioned positions are much less than the requirement, association president Dr K Senthil told TOI. In many hospitals, the number of doctors was not raised while increasing the number of beds and services, he said.
“Vacancies make the situation worse. Doctors are overworked and fatigued. There is a risk of delays in emergency treatment, complications, and premature deaths across GHs,” Dr Senthil said. “Non-service PGs have also started leaving as their bond period is over. It will take at least March 2025 for the fresh batch of students to come in,” he added.
In a letter to health secretary Supriya Sahu, the doctors’ association urged the govt to expedite promotion and recruitment processes to avoid a healthcare crisis. At least 2,500 (40%) posts in primary health centres, 1,000 posts (33%) in secondary care hospitals, 250 posts in maternity hospitals, and 2,500 posts in medical colleges are waiting to be filled, the association said.
While vacancies exist in posts of physicians, general surgeons, and anaesthetists, the worst shortage is of obstetricians-gynaecologists. Under guidelines of the labour room quality improvement initiative (LaQshya), launched by the Union health ministry, govt hospitals in Tamil Nadu require 2,000 obstetricians. “We have just 850 obstetricians across GHs in the state. Nearly 60% of the 9.5 lakh deliveries in the state happen in govt hospitals. Gynaecologists are among the most overworked,” said association state general secretary Dr A Srinivasan.
For example, in Sivagangai district, there are three Cemonc hospitals where 17 obstetricians-gynaecologists are required as per LaQshya, but only two doctors are available. For five Cemonc hospitals in Trichy, there are nine obstetricians-gynaecologists, while the requirement is 30. At Manaparai headquarters hospital, there are no gynaecologists in Cemonc centres against the requirement of seven. Several PHCs have just one doctor against the requirement of five. “How can we reduce the maternal mortality rate to 10 when we have no doctors available to screen pregnant women,” he asked.
In tertiary care medical college hospitals, 500 posts of professor, 1,000 posts of associate professor, and an equal number of posts of assistant professor are vacant. “Promotions for associate professors have been pending for more than 20 months. The govt should promote doctors and others must be recruited,” Dr Srinivasan said.
Health minister Ma Subramanian earlier told reporters that recruitment is an ongoing process. He said that while the department is addressing legal cases, the medical recruitment board is consistently conducting examinations and processing lists of eligible candidates for posts of doctors, nurses, and other allied health services.
