National Human Rights Commission today issued a notice and sought report from the Union Health Ministry over "acute shortage" of doctors and other staff in premier hospitals, including the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), in the national capital.
The notice was issued after the commission took suo motu cognisance of a media report that the Central government has admitted that there is an acute shortage of doctors and specialists in its medical units, according to an NHRC statement released today.
"As many as 223 posts of doctors, 287 posts of nurses and 692 posts of para-medical and technical staff are currently vacant in premier institutes, including All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Safdarjung Hospital, Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, Lady Harding Medical College and associated hospitals," the statement said.
The commission has observed that it is the duty of the government to provide medical facilities to its citizens for a healthy life and the contents of the media report, if true, raise a serious issue of violation of human rights.
It has issued a notice to the Union Health Secretary, calling for an action-taken report within four weeks.
