Madurai: Taking serious note of the dengue deaths due to the shortage of doctors in government hospitals in Tamil Nadu, the Madurai bench of the Madras High Court on Wednesday directed the state government to fill up 2,500 assistant surgeon (general) vacancies in government hospitals from the waiting list of the selected candidates soon.
"The State can fill up the vacancies than those advertised, if there is an emergent situation and exceptional circumstances. In the present case, when there is an outbreak of dengue fever all over the State of Tamil Nadu and many poor and innocent people have started dying due to shortage of doctors to attend them in the primary health centres, district head quarter hospitals," said Justice T Raja in his order.
The interim order passed by this court staying the recruitment process also stands vacated, as the judge dismissed the petition filed by Sagaya Panimalar, a MBBS graduate from Virudhunagar who alleged that Medical Services Recruitment Board (MSRB) has initiated recruitment process violating the regulations.
Justice Raja also observed that National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), New Delhi, has also expressed serious concerns over the prevailing health situation in the state and asked for the details of hospitals run by the government and total sanctioned strength of doctors and para-medical staffs. A division bench of this court had earlier issued direction in writ petitions to fill up the doctors vacancies, said the judge.
Stating that asking the government to issue fresh notification for recruitment would be a wasteful exercise, the court observed that the action taken by the Health department in filling up the assistant surgeons post by considering the selected candidates from the waiting list was absolutely in order.
