HC asks governments to decide on appointment of doctors

The Delhi High Court Wednesday asked the central and city governments to treat as representation a plea seeking the court's direction to appoint doctors in government hospitals.

The plea said that due to the vacancies, patients were not getting treatment and some were dying after being denied medical assistance.

A division bench of Justice Pradeep Nandrajog and Justice Jayant Nath asked lawyer Sugriv Dubey, who filed the public interest litigation, to make his representation on the vacancies in hospitals with the government.

The bench, during a brief hearing, said: "Now you have a good government in Delhi. Bills are passed in public domain... make a representation there."

"It's a common man's party now. They proclaimed you (people) to come to them (with their problem)," the bench said.

The plea said the conditions at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) here were very poor as vacancies are not being filled due to negligence of the hospital director.

"It is unfortunate that there is a shortage of staff as vacancies are not being filled up. Hence, patients are not attended to properly by the staff," the plea said.

"There is a shortage of doctors due to which 4,000 cardiac surgeries are pending and the possibility of cardiac operation of a patient is only after one year and sometimes one-and-half years. By that time, majority of patients die in absence of any medical assistance," it said.

It said there was a large number of vacancies for doctors, due to which patients from other states have to wait for three to four months in Delhi staying on footpaths or have to return home without any medical assistance.

It said patients could be seen staying even under the roadbridge near AIIMS waiting for their turn to get medical treatment.

Even the trauma centre was unable to attend to serious patients due to shortage of doctors, it said.

Pointing out that in neighbouring Safdarjung hospital, more than 150 doctors' posts are lying vacant, the PIL said the government and Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) were not effecting appointments even though a large number of doctors were unemployed and working in private hospitals without appropriate wages.