Legislative Assembly Speaker Kagodu Thimmappa summoned Minister for Health and Family Welfare U.T. Khader and Principal Secretary N. Sivasailam to his chamber on Thursday and took them to task for laxity in the recruitment of doctors in government hospitals and health centres.
Mr. Thimmappa, who had earlier written to Mr. Khader on shortage of doctors and drugs, discussed in detail problems confronting the health sector. He told the Minister and Mr. Sivasailam to take steps to increase the salary of doctors and specialists and fill vacancies. Mr. Khader said nearly 2,000 posts of MBBS doctor, 1,700 posts of postgraduate doctor and 120 posts of dentists were vacant across the State-run hospitals.
Mr. Thimmappa, who was Health Minister in the S.M. Krishna government, said vacancies in the department had not been filed for last decade. Instead of recruiting staff through the KPSC, the Speaker told Mr. Khader to conduct direct recruitment on the basis of merit. He told the Minister to give salary to department doctors on a par with that of doctors in government medical colleges.
