Terming the situation “disheartening”, the National Human Rights Commission on Wednesday issued a notice to the Tamil Nadu government over the shortage of doctors at government hospitals that had reportedly hit patient care.
Taking suo motu cognisance of a media report published on Monday, the NHRC issued notices to the Chief Secretary and the Health Secretary of Tamil Nadu. The officials were asked to send reports within eight weeks about the total number of medical facilities run by the government, the total sanctioned strength of doctors and para-medical staff, the number of vacant posts and the steps taken by the government to address the shortage of medical staff.
As per the report, the shortage of doctors had led to patients suffering, with long queues every day and months-long waiting for surgeries. The situation had become so bad that there had been confrontation between the patients and staff.
1 lakh doctors needed
The NHRC observed that 80% of population of the State depended on the government hospitals for care. Citing the regulations and recommendations of the Medical Council of India and the World Health Organisation, the NHRC said the State needed 1 lakh doctors, but there were only 18,000 working currently.
The NHRC observed that the State would fail in its duty if it did not provide quality healthcare to people in a timely fashion, which it can only do with the required number of doctors and para-medical staff. The NHRC also observed that the doctors and para-medical staff working currently would go through physical and mental stress due to the shortage of staff.
