State all set to fire 190 docs who didn’t report to work at height of crisis

“During the crisis,when we began counting our personnel for deputation to the affected areas,it emerged that so many doctors were on leave. Since they have failed to turn up for duty despite specific orders issued in the aftermath of the flood,we have decided to move forward with termination of their services,” Negi said.

Services of doctors still within the probation period of two years will be terminated “immediately” while show-cause notices would be issued first to senior doctors “as per protocol” before the termination orders,he said.

Sources in the Union health ministry confirmed that a medical officer posted near the Kedarnath shrine had not reported for duty for over a year.

“Let alone specialists,the state is short on medical officers. Many of our specialists were made to sit in camps and attend to cases of cough and fever,” a doctor from a Central government hospital in Delhi said.

Negi conceded there was “serious shortage” of specialists in the state health cadre. Of the 1,200 doctors under the state government,only 30 per cent were specialists,and several of them were missing when they were needed.