BHUBANESWAR: Under fire over the shortage of physicians, the Odisha government on Wednesday created 5,000 more posts of doctors in the rank of Group-A (junior branch) of the Odisha Medical and Health Services (OMHS) cadre.
The Leave Training Reserve Medical Officers (LTRMOs) will be posted at district headquarters hospitals, community health centres (CHC), sub-divisional hospitals and urban CHCs in the state besides Capital Hospital and Rourkela Government Hospital (RGH).
With the creation of new posts, the sanctioned strength of doctors in the state has increased to 15,774. Earlier, the OMHS cadre had a sanctioned strength of 10,774 medical officers of which 8,213 medical officers are in positions in different government hospitals.
Similarly, as per the Odisha Medical Education Service (OMES) cadre, the sanctioned strength of medical officers - assistant professors, associate professors and professors are 1,571 but 1,232 are in position.
Health Secretary Shalini Pandit said the creation of 5,000 new posts of LTRMO will help bridge the gap in the number of recruited and actually present doctors at health centres. There will be no shortage of doctors which will ultimately improve healthcare in the state, she added.
In a letter to the principal accountant general, the health secretary on Wednesday intimated that the creation of posts has been approved by the Governor following due concurrence by the Finance Department. As per the decision, the highest 65 more posts have been created in Ganjam DHH, followed by 64 in Mayurbhanj, 45 each in Sundargarh and RGH and 35 in Capital Hospital while 20 posts each have been added in six DHHs and 15 posts each in the rest 21 DHHs.
Each of the 32 sub-divisional hospitals will have 15 doctors and each of the 375 CHCs will have 10 doctors more after the appointment of additional doctors.