Govt Advertises 450 Posts Of Medical Officers To Strengthen Healthcare Delivery, Details Here
Srinagar: J&K Government has started the process of filling 450 posts of medical officers under direct recruitment in a bid to address the shortage of doctors in peripheral hospitals.
A gazette notification issued by Health and Medical Education on November 18 has begun the process of long pending and ongoing vacant posts of medical officers.
The posts have been referred to J&K Public Service Commission for advertisement and filling. Whereas the total number of posts in Health and Family Welfare department is 450, these vacancies had been advertised earlier also and many have remained unfilled due to the various terms and conditions being unmet by the applicants. The terms and conditions, a senior health official said, remain unchanged.
The government has clearly mentioned that the advertisement needs to incorporate the conditions it has instituted earlier to ensure that the candidates selected for the posts are available to serve at their places of posting. These conditions are “the selected candidates shall not be allowed to continue with the PG/tenures of senior residency/registrar-ship/demonstrator-ship” and will have only one choice to either take up the job or go with their prior academic engagements. Plus, the selectees will need to serve in peripheral and far-flung areas of the UT of J&K.
The “breakup of these posts we per SRO 294 dated 21/10/2005 read with SO 127 dated 29-07-2020” has been provided and amount to 225 posts under OM and the remaining under various categories. There would be 4 per cent horizontal reservation, in addition, for the physically challenged.
In March 2019, J&K Government terminated 437 candidates who had been selected for these posts but failed to join their places of posting despite many reminders and notices. The candidates had earlier approached the Courts to seek time for completion of their educational degrees or tenure posts. In January 2019, Health and Medical Education department had issued the selection list of 921 medical officers, meant to work in peripheral health sector and reprieve people living in these areas of chronic doctor shortage.
The posts had been advertised first in 2018 and culminated as the “fastest recruitment drive” in the department as an answer to lopsided doctor-patient ratio in rural and far flung areas. Though 1000 posts had been advertised, the final selection list had 927 candidates, more than half of which failed to fulfill the criteria laid down by the government and later endorsed by the High Court.
