HYDERABAD: While Health Minister Eatala Rajender has constantly asserted through his tweets and at press meets that the Telangana Institute of Medical Sciences (TIMS) is “ready to serve”, it has come to light that TIMS has only 50 percent of the staff in place. Eatala had stated that TIMS will be opened to the public on July 8. The State government, on Tuesday, called for the second phase of recruitment to fill the remaining vacant posts in TIMS as well as in Gandhi Hospital, on an outsourcing basis.
On June 16, the State government had issued a notification for filling up of 499 posts in TIMS on contract basis. However, only half the posts were filled despite the government claiming that it had received 13,090 applications. Director of Medical Education Dr Ramesh Reddy, in a note released on Tuesday said, “Based on the new presidential order and as per the merit and roster system, applicants were selected. Unfortunately, 50 per cent of vacancies could not be filled. Thus, there is a need to fill these posts to combat the pandemic of Covid-19.”
There has been criticism that the State government’s recruitment drive has been eliciting poor response because it is hiring staff on contract basis. Dr Mahesh Kumar of Healthcare Reforms Doctors Association said, “The Telangana government can recruit staff in government hospitals on a permanent basis but there is no will. Recruitment on contract or outsourcing basis will continue to receive poor response and the quality of applicants will also be low.”
Active cases cross 11K mark, govt says 11.9K beds vacant
The Covid toll reached 313 with seven new deaths on Tuesday. With 1,897 new cases, Telangana crossed the 11K mark. These new cases were reported in 27 districts of the State. Overall, the State’s tally now is 27,612 cases. The government said despite such a high spike in cases, there were beds available, which was at 92.2 per cent vacancy rate. For isolation, there are 11,928 beds, for oxygen, there are 3,537 beds and for ICU there are 1,616 beds. Thus in total there are 17,081 beds. The bulletin highlighted that Gandhi Hospital is a centre of excellence for Covid care and 130 patients are in ICU, 356 on oxygen and 35 on CPAP. Close to 1,150 beds are vacant for critical care support and patients can avail those free of cost. GHMC recorded 1,422 cases followed by Ranga Reddy -176 and Medchal- 94 cases.