Following an NDTV report that revealed severe staffing shortages in facilities intended for victims of the 1984 Bhopal Gas Disaster, the Madhya Pradesh Health Services Directorate has approved the employment of twelve doctors.

The doctors are among the fifteen people included in the report whose postings were approved but who later received informal notice that the orders had been revoked.

NDTV had reported on July 29 that out of 1,247 positions in gas relief hospitals, only 749, or little more than half, are occupied, depriving thousands of victims of gas leaks of proper medical attention.

The postings of 46 specialists and 69 medical officers were advertised by the Bhopal Gas Tragedy Relief and Rehabilitation Department on May 16. However, on June 27, the Health Services Directorate directed that just 15 medical officers, including 5 experts, be posted. Even yet, a few of them subsequently received word that the posting orders had been revoked, and one of them claimed they hadn't even received an explanation for the delay in the selection procedure.

The Madhya Pradesh High Court demanded a status report from the Gas Relief Department by Wednesday during a hearing on July 30 of this year, threatening to hold top officials in contempt for their failure to fill positions.

The appointments were announced on Tuesday, and on Wednesday during a hearing, the Health Services Directorate informed Acting Chief Justice Sanjeev Sachdeva and Justice Vinay Saraf, the bench of the high court, about them. Senior attorney Anshuman Singh also brought a monitoring committee report dated May 2024 before the court, emphasizing that because of the authorities' inactivity, cancer patients exposed to gas were not obtaining treatment in a timely manner.

The court sought a response from the federal and state governments and mandated that no gas victims' care be postponed or stopped.

Social worker Rachna Dhingra, who represents gas victims, called the appointments a major win. "The gas victims will now be able to get surgeries done which had been pending for years because of a lack of surgeons and anesthesiologists at gas relief hospitals," she said. 

Reference:

1. NDTV.com. “NDTV Impact: Madhya Pradesh Appoints More Doctors For Gas Tragedy Victims,” n.d. https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/ndtv-impact-madhya-pradesh-appoints-more-doctors-for-gas-tragedy-victims-6285607.

(Input from various sources)

(Rehash/Priyanka Pandey/MSM)