Baramulla: A serious personnel shortage is impeding the day-to-day operations of the Government Medical College (GMC)’s affiliated hospital in Baramulla.
According to official records, there are around 97 open posts in various cadres throughout various areas of the hospital, making it difficult for the organisation to continue running daily operations.
According to Greater Kashmir’s official statistics, only 131 of the 228 sanctioned posts—which include Class IV, non-gazetted, and gazetted positions—are actually filled.
97 open posts have been abandoned as a result, translating to a startling 42 percent vacancy rate inside the institution.
A crucial section of the medical hierarchy, the gazetted category, has been especially heavily damaged. Only 36 of the 59 approved gazetted positions are filled at the moment, leaving 23 unfilled.
Notably, this exacerbates the personnel shortage by excluding crucial jobs like medical officers, senior consultants in medicine, and consultant paediatricians. The situation is similarly worrying in the non-gazetted category, where just 53 of the 115 sanctioned posts are now filled.
There are shortages in key positions like anaesthesia assistants, junior nurses, and junior laboratory technicians, which makes it difficult to offer patients with complete treatment.
There are now 12 open posts out of 54 in the Class IV cadre, which supports the hospital’s general operation. This puts further burden on the current personnel.
There are now more open jobs due to many staff’ recent retirements, and the Health and Medical Education Department has not yet filled any of them.
In the next months, a number of staff are also set to retire. This is likely to make the issue worse and might seriously hamper hospital operations owing to a staffing shortage.
The Principal of GMC Baramulla recently relieved a top physician to the Directorate of Health Services Kashmir (DHSK). However, the department has not yet dispatched a replacement, which has alarmed the interested parties.
Notably, the affiliated hospital of the GMC Baramulla, which was elevated from a district hospital to a GMC in 2019, had been running on the premise that medical professionals who were now employed by the DHSK may continue working for the GMC for the next 10 to 12 years.
Greater Kashmir was informed by Dr. Rubi Reshi, the principal of GMC Baramulla, that the DHSK will fill the open jobs at the affiliated hospital.
“The positions were filled, but after the hospital was upgraded to GMC, people working on these posts were transferred,” she said.
Dr. Reshi said that the issue has been raised with the Administrative Department on several occasions. We are anticipating their response in this matter, she added. According to Dr. Reshi, the DHSK needed to fill the open Medical Officer posts.
Dr. Mushtaq Ahmad Rather, director of Health Service Kashmir, informed Greater Kashmir that the directorate was not required to fill the open jobs at the hospital since the facility had been promoted to GMC status and now directly reports to the government.
“The government must fill all open positions. Professors, junior residents, senior residents, and other staff members make up the GMC faculty, he said. According to Dr. Rather, the GMC received temporary assistance from the personnel who had to progressively leave the organisation.
