CUTTACK: The Health and Family Welfare department informed the Orissa High Court on Wednesday that 5,000 doctors will be recruited in the state in the next six months. In an affidavit, commissioner-cum-secretary of Health & Family Welfare department Shalini Pandit said government orders have been obtained for creation of 5,000 posts of Group A (JB) medical officers. “Requisites for filling up of the said posts will be submitted to the Odisha Public Service Commission (OPSC) after completion of posting of newly recruited medical officers. The process of recruitment is targeted to be completed by October 2023”, Pandit claimed in the affidavit.
She said requisites were sent to OPSC for recruitment of 3,481 medical officers for filling up vacancies in the Odisha Medical Health Services (OMHS) cadre.The OPSC had selected and recommended a list of 1,205 candidates on November 23, 2022. “After obtaining government order they will be posted in various health institutions of the state,”, Pandit said in the affidavit filed in pursuance to the court’s order on February 15.
The court was hearing a PIL filed by lawyer and social activist Chittaranjan Mohanty in 2018, seeking intervention for filing up all sanctioned posts in government hospitals in districts and creating new posts as per requirement. In the affidavit, Pandit said the OMHS cadre had a sanctioned strength of 10,774 medical officers but 8,213 medical officers are in position in different government hospitals.
Of the 8,213 medical officers, 7180 are in the regular category, 37 ad hoc, 925 contractual and 71 engaged under District Mineral Fund. As per the Odisha Medical Education Service (OMES) cadre, the sanctioned strength of medical officers - assistant professors, associate professors and professors is 1,571 but 1,232 are in position.
At government medical colleges under OMES cadre, 748 assistant professors, 289 associate professors and 195 professors are in position against sanctioned strengths of 853, 445 and 273 respectively, Pandit stated in the affidavit.Taking the affidavit on record, the division bench of Chief Justice S Muralidhar and Justice Gourishankar Satapathy asked the petitioner to file a reply by the next date. However, no date was fixed by the bench.