(MENAFN- IANS) Chennai, Nov 13 (IANS) The Tamil Nadu health department will start on Thursday the counseling process for regularising the services of nurses working on contract and filling 1,271 vacancies in government hospitals, said Health Minister Ma Subramanian.
Reiterating the M.K. Stalin government's commitment to improve health services, the Minister said an examination would be held in January 2025 to fill 2,553 doctor vacancies in hospitals.
According to Minister Subramanian, even after the regularisation of services of 1,271 nurses, 954 vacancies will remain in hospitals and the government would try to fill them at the earliest.
Department officials stated that the minister has instructed that these nurses be assigned locations of their choice.
The minister also directed officials to consider the nurses' seniority while taking any decision on their posting.
The process starting Thursday will be the second round of regularisation of services of contract nurses since 2020.
Previously, the Tamil Nadu Health Department had regularised the services of 1,412 contract nurses who were initially recruited on a contract basis during the Covid-19 pandemic.
In May 2020, the state recruited 2,400 nurses on a monthly salary of Rs 14,000 to address the public health emergency declared by the World Health Organisation (WHO). However, their contract ended on December 31, 2022.
The Health Minister said the government was also working on the process for filling doctor vacancies in government hospitals.
The Health Department will conduct an examination on January 27 to fill 2,553 doctor vacancies. Plans are also underway to hire doctors and nurses for the Urban Health and Wellness Centres (UHWC) across the state.
Each UHWC will have four staff members: Doctor, nurse, health inspector, and worker. Recruitment will be managed by district health societies at the district level, an official said.
The state government has planned to open 708 UHWCs across 21 corporations and 63 municipalities in Tamil Nadu. Chief Minister M.K. Stalin inaugurated 500 UHWCs in June 2023 as the first phase, with the remaining 208 centres set to open once doctors and nurses are appointed.
-IANS
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