Students of the Government Medical College here took out a march to the Collectorate on Monday asking the State government to fill the vacancies of doctors and address the long-pending developmental concerns of the Government Medical College Hospital here.
The protesters, including college union leaders and representatives of various medical associations, alleged that the medical college authorities were trying to appease the Medical Council of India by following the technical directions alone without projecting the actual developmental concerns of the hospital and addressing them.
Pleas ignoredIn a joint statement issued here after the Collectorate march, they said the authorities concerned had not heeded to the pleas and suggestions made by them for projecting the developmental needs of the hospital.
“In several departments, the Out-Patient (OP) consultation is not running properly as per the declared schedule, owing to the shortage of staff,” they said.
A detailed statistics released by the students said there were 78 vacancies of doctors at the medical college. This was at a time when the government sanctioned 455 posts.
The vacancies were reported from 37 departments. Though the actual number of doctors needed to these departments was 715, only 385 were appointed.
Vacancies of lecturersAccording to the Medical College Union leaders, the case was the same even in the appointment of lecturers to the college. “The actual number of lecturers needed for handling classes in 23 specialties is 569, but, the college is managing it with just 375 persons,” a union leader said.
They said that the march was the start of a series of protests planned against the government apathy. “More specialty departments such as Paediatric Cardiology, Paediatric Neurology, Paediatric Haematology, Haemato Oncology, endocrinology and surgical oncology have to be started at the college independently or under the broad specialty concerned,” they said.
