Shimla, Dec 13 – The Himachal Pradesh High Court has pulled up the state government for not deploying staff in Rohru Zonal Hospital as health services are facing apathy from government negligence.
The division bench, comprising Chief Justice MS Ramachandra Rao and Justice Jyotsna Rewal Dua, asked the state to file a fresh status report over the number of vacant posts.
20 posts were left vacant to be filled up on a batch-wise basis.
The state informed the court that most of the posts of staff nurses are vacant.
The court said in a one-page order passed on Monday that it fails “to understand why the process of filling up 33 vacancies in the Civil Hospital Rohru should wait till March 2024, since it is not the case of the respondents state that illness to the citizens will get postponed after March 2024, and nobody will fall ill in the intervening period.”.
The court asked the state to explain the “dilatory tactics” employed in addressing the severe staff shortage at Rohru Civil Hospital.
Maintaining that the critical staff shortage at Rohru Zonal Hospital couldn’t be delayed any further, the Court has directed the Director of Health Services to submit a comprehensive report by the next hearing, detailing the reasons behind the delays and outlining a concrete action plan for immediate recruitment and deployment of staff.
The Court, acting on a Suo Motu Public Interest Litigation (PIL), expressed deep concern about the lack of progress despite previous directives.
Commenting on the report, the bench said that a similar statement had been made in the status report filed on October 10, 2023, and expressed dissatisfaction over the lack of progress in the two-month interim period.
Finding that the status report filed by the state today offered no new solutions, merely reiterating the same plan presented two months ago, the bench recorded,
Earlier this year, the HC took cognizance of the issue when a news article highlighted the severe shortage of paramedical staff at the Civil Hospital in Rohru, prompting the court’s intervention.
The court fixed the matter until December 19 for further hearing.
