Karnataka High Court has directed the State Government to fill up all vacancies in the government hospitals in Bangalore within the next three months.

The vacancies are over 1500 in the 16 government hospitals in the city including five autonomous institutions. The 16 hospitals and five autonomous institutes include Victoria, Bowring, Vani Vilas, Indira Gandhi Institute for Child Health, Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Chest Diseases, Sanjay Gandhi Accident Relief and NIMHANS.

A division bench comprising Chief Justice NK Sodhi and Justice B Padmaraj issued the directive after taking on record affidavits filed by the State Government following a public interest litigation by B Krishna Bhat.

When the PIL came up before the court on an earlier occasion, the state had been asked to file an affidavit about the conditions of the hospitals. The affidavit stated that there were 16 government hospitals in the city including five autonomous institutions and all were pathetically run with poor infrastructure and lack of sanitation.

A perusal of the affidavits shows that there are vacancies. Unfortunately, the affidavit is silent about the issue of the bed and staff strength in the hospitals when it was reviewed.

An affidavit to this effect shall be filed by the director of the health and family welfare department, the Bench served. The court has also taken strong exception to the lack of proper equipment in city government hospitals and directed filing of an affidavit in this regard too.

The conditions of the hospitals are pathetic and none of them have even a generator as a backup in the case of power failure. Most of the hospitals are without basic X-ray machine. In fact, the TB and Chest Diseases Hospital and sanatorium are being run without an X-Ray machine.

The fact that government hospitals have no baby incubators and also the incinerators to burn the hospital waste is missing observed the Court. The Court has now directed the resident medical officer of autonomous hospitals to file separate affidavits on the steps taken by them to maintain cleanliness.

In addition, the Court would also appoint a panel of doctors to inspect the hospitals if the state authorities cannot furnish a list of infrastructure required for the effective service to the common man.