Congress general secretary Randeep Singh Surjewala on Friday alleged that there are a shortage of 60 per cent doctors and 71 per cent nurses across Bihar.
Congress leader told reporters in a press meet that Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and his deputy Sushil Kumar Modi have put the health services in Bihar on a ventilator by keeping a large number of posts of health workers vacant.
Surjewala cited the official data and said “out of the 12,206 sanctioned posts of doctors in Bihar, only 5,205 are filled, showing that the state has a shortage of 7,001 doctors.”
He also added that only 5,634 nurses are working at various health centres against 19,155 sanctioned posts in Bihar.
Bihar has a shortage of 13,521 nurses, he pointed.
Surjewala also raised the issue of the health centres’ lack in the state and said Bihar needed 18,637 health sub-centres, but the state has just 9,949 such facilities, which is 50 per cent of the requirement.
A huge gap also exists between the required number of primary health centres and community health centres and the actual number of those facilities, according to the Congress leader.
The state needed 3099 primary health centres, but it has just 1899 such centres, which is 39 per cent of the requirement.
Bihar has a shortage of 81% community health centres. Currently there are only 150 such centres in Bihar while the state needed 774 community health centres.
Surjewala told reporters that in a health index report issued by the World Bank and the Union health ministry, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, where the BJP is in power, have ranked at the bottom.
While raising serious concerns about the state’s health sector, Congress leader announced that after coming to power in the ongoing assembly elections, the Grand Alliance will fill up these posts quickly in a special drive, simplifying the lengthy recruitment process and bypassing the Public Service Commission.
“To improve the healthcare services in Bihar, the Grand Alliance government will fill up the vacant posts by an ‘open recruitment system,” senior Congress leader said.
