Speed Up Medical Recruitments: CM

Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy, on Monday, asked the Health & Medical department to expedite the process of recruitment of doctors, para-medical staff and nurses.

1,900 doctors will be recruited within the next three months. Similarly, the recruitment of 9,717 para medical staff is pending for review by the Group of Ministers, for a decision on weightage to contract employees.

The CM also suggested that the posts of 11,970 nurses be filled in a phased manner. He asked officials to follow a time-frame to complete the recruitment process.

The CM held a detailed review of issues relating to the Health, Medical & Family Welfare department at Secretariat. He asked the Medical & Health department officials to settle their issues and quickly put in place the Employees Health Scheme.

The CM said that NIMS Rangapur and Visakha Institute Of Medical Sciences should be immediately operationalized, with 200 beds in Phase I. Both these hospitals will remain "super-speciality hospitals". He asked the minister and senior officials to personally visit both the places and prepare a detailed project report to ensure that both they are operationalized at the earliest. He assured the officials of funds.

He emphasised the need to make the hospitals economically viable. He also asked the officials to immediately constitute a search committee and appoint directors for both the hospitals.

The CM agreed to provide funds to strengthen medical education as per MCI norms. He asked officials to draft proposals for the additional amount required for infrastructure and equipment in medical colleges and teaching hospitals.

He also said that there is no dearth of funds for the Medical department, and that the budget for the department was enhanced 3 times over the last 3 years.

The CM agreed to a proposal to set up a nursing board for regulating nursing education in the state. He suggested the tapping of NABARD funds for operationalising newly-sanctioned nursing schools and colleges.

Referring to the strike by employees of "108", the Chief Minister emphatically said that government rules should be followed, and that alternative arrangements must be made in view of the strike. To this, officials told him that as against 743 vehicles, 583 are on the roads. Officials also said that EMRI has hired staff from Chattisgarh and other places as a stop-gap arrangement. Reddy asked officials to ensure that all vehicles of the 108 service are equipped with vehicle-tracking systems.

Minister for Health And Family Welfare, Kondru Murali, Chief Secretary Dr. P K Mohanty, Principal Secretaries L V Subhramanyam (Health), Ajay Sawhney, and Dr. P V Ramesh (Finance), and other senior officials of the Health department, attended the meeting. (INN)