Punjab to recruit 400 nurses and 140 technicians to tackle COVID-19 crisis

Amid the COVID surge, Punjab government has decided to conduct large scale recruitment of health workers in the state to tackle the situation.

Taking a serious note of the situation, Chief Minister Capt. Amarinder Singh on Friday ordered immediate recruitment of 400 nurses and 140 technicians to the government medical colleges, while directing the department to expedite the medical college projects approved or in progress in the state so that Punjab is not left behind in the development of medical infrastructure.

The Chief Minister, who also raised the issue during the virtual meeting earlier with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, said he will be writing soon to the latter seeking a direction to PGI Satellite Centres and Military Hospitals in Punjab to provide COVID beds to citizens. Prefabricated structures could also be used for this purpose, he stressed.

Virtually reviewing the functioning of the Department of Medical Education and Research, particularly in the backdrop of the COVID crisis, the Chief Minister also approved amendment in rules for re-

designating the department faculty members in a time-bound manner to bring them at par with their peers on this count.

On the recruitment drive, the Chief Minister said that of the 900 posts sanctioned after the department’s restructuring, 400 should be filled immediately in phase 1 with the hiring of nurses. In the hiring of technicians, reasonable weightage should be given to those who are already working on contract with Punjab government, he said.

State Medical Education Minister OP Soni shared details of the various hospitals and medical colleges that are coming up in Mohali, Hoshiarpur and Kapurthala. Efforts are also being made to establish medical colleges at Malerkotla and Gurdaspur with the approval of the Central government, he said.

He added that the satellite centre of PGI will also be commissioned at Sangrur this year while construction of satellite centre of PGI at Ferozepur had started. Further, approval has recently been received from ICMR, New Delhi for setting up of National Institute of Virology at Mohali, Soni disclosed.