Bihar recruits 4,997 nurses but staff shortages remain

PATNA: The Bihar health department late Sunday evening issued orders posting 4,997 nurses to health facilities, a day after chief minister Nitish Kumar announced that his government will recruit around 4,000 doctors and 5,000 nurses this month to tide over a shortage of medical staff in the state health sector amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

“The nurses have been given seven days to join. We got the recommendation for appointment of nurses from the Bihar Technical Services Commission late on August 13 and issued their posting orders tonight,” said Pratyaya Amrit, Bihar’s principal secretary, health.

The department will also move to fill 575 posts of assistant professors in medical colleges through the Bihar Public Service Commission. The government managed to appoint only 2,775 members of the medical faculty against 3,350 vacancies in the last one year.

In addition, 1,750 laboratory technicians, pharmacists and sanitary inspectors will also be recruited in September, Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar said in his Independence Day speech on Saturday.

Bihar has so far reported 104,093 Covid-19 cases, with 537 deaths — the highest single-day death being 22 on Sunday. It has successfully scaled up its testing to 1,679,462 till Saturday. As of August 14, Bihar was testing 12,625 per million.

These appointments will still be inadequate given the vacancies existing against already sanctioned posts. “There is a shortage of 2,000-odd members of the medical faculty as there are only 1,950 against 4,000 sanctioned posts in the rank of assistant professor and above in staterun medical colleges. Appointing 575 assistant professors will not be enough,” said a senior doctor, requesting anonymity.

“In state health services, there will still remain a shortage of around 4,600 doctors in the rank of senior medical officer to director-in-chief, even as vacancies at the general duty medical officer (GDMO) level will be filled up after recruitment of 4,000 doctors in the basic grade. The vacancy from first promotion level (senior medical officer) onward will, however, remain because the state government has not promoted any doctor in the last 24 years,” said Dr Ranjeet Kumar, general secretary of the Bihar Health Services Association.

The situation in the case of nurses is no different. The Bihar government could appoint only 4,997 nurses against 9,130 posts of GNM staff grade ‘A’.