The state government in an affidavit before the high court has accepted that specialist doctors' posts in government hospitals are lying vacant because there no takers. But both the state and the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) claimed they are taking enough measures to control the spread of swine flu.
A division bench of Chief Justice R Subhash Reddy and Justice Vipul Pancholi is hearing a public interest petition filed by Manasvi Thapar. The petitioner had submitted that there are not enough specialist doctors to handle the flu. The high court had asked the state and AMC to file their replies.
The state in its reply on Wednesday accepted that specialist doctors are not willing to join duty in rural or semi-urban areas. "The state is doing its best to hire doctors," the state submitted.
AMC’s preparedness to fight the flu
- AMC-run hospitals have 354 beds
- 77 urban health centres
- 99 medical officers
- 500 multipurpose health workers
- 1,200 ASHA workers
- 60 staff nurses
- 74 lakh; Text messages have been sent to raise awareness
- 104 ads run in cinema halls
- 81 specialty private hospitals have as many as 350 beds
State government
- 203 medical officers in urban areas
- 1 medical officer each in most of the primary health centres in the state
- 930 doctors in 362 community health centres against the approved strength 1,155
- In 2010, 18,680 specialist doctors hired on contract against requisite strength of 3,730
SWINE FLU KILLS 5 MORE, NO. OF CASES NEAR 6,000
- Swine flu claims five more lives in the state in the last 24 hours
- On Wednesday, 127 new cases reported in the state
- Total number of cases approach 6,000
- Death toll rises to 382 since January this year
- Number of cases rise to 5,949 since January
- Gujarat saw second highest number of swine flu deaths this year
- Maharashtra accounted for 470 deaths
- Ahmedabad, Rajkot, Vadodara and Surat account for 62% of cases
- 4,913 patients have recovered so far
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