West Bengal will begin recruiting contractual doctors for government hospitals from Friday to address staffing shortages in facilities across Kolkata and rural areas, Health Minister Sharadwat Mukherjee said on Thursday. The state is also considering the contractual appointment of 8,000 to 10,000 nursing staff, according to the report by Anandabazar – West Bengal.
The hospitals identified as facing shortages include Kolkata Medical College, Bidhannagar Sub-Divisional Hospital, North Suburban Hospital, Vidyasagar Hospital, Baghajatin State General Hospital and BN Bose Sub-Divisional Hospital in Barrackpore. The Health Department has not publicly detailed the distribution of the proposed appointments among these institutions in the information available.
Mukherjee said the government plans to appoint more than 2,000 doctors. He said contractual doctors and health workers would be deployed wherever shortages are found, and that the proposed recruitment would cover needs ranging from doctors to Group D staff. The minister also indicated that contractual nursing appointments were being considered.
The decision has been linked to the time required for permanent recruitment. Health Department officials said earlier recruitment through the Health Recruitment Board, which covered doctors, nurses, medical technologists and other hospital personnel, generally took about eight months to complete. Mukherjee said recruitment through the Public Service Commission, from publication of the notification to completion of the process, could take at least one and a half years.
The minister said the health department could not remain without staff for that period and would therefore use contractual appointments to address the immediate gap. He also said contractual doctors and health workers could continue after permanent recruitment if shortages remained, although the report does not provide details on the proposed contracts, remuneration, tenure, selection criteria or service conditions.
The announcement comes after recent recruitment through the Health Recruitment Board for several posts. According to the report, the state completed appointments for 1,227 General Duty Medical Officers, 621 assistant professors and 5,430 Staff Nurse Grade II positions. The minister’s latest estimate indicates that the government considers these appointments insufficient for the requirements of the public health system.
The move has received a cautious welcome from the Association of Health Service Doctors. Its general secretary, Utpal Bandyopadhyay, said the organisation supported government action to fill vacancies but maintained that permanent recruitment was necessary to attract capable and committed doctors to the public healthcare system. He said the government should create a faster route for permanent appointments.
Former Health Recruitment Board chairman Sudipta Roy opposed the need for contractual recruitment. He said the panels prepared after examinations for General Duty Medical Officers, assistant professors and nurses were still valid and that candidates could be appointed from those panels. Roy said the relevant lists were available on the board’s website and had also been sent to the Health Department.
Kalyanashis Mukherjee, a leader of the BJP’s doctors’ cell, described contractual recruitment as a practical measure to manage the shortage until permanent appointments are made. The competing responses underline the administrative question now facing the state: how quickly it can place doctors and nursing staff in understaffed hospitals while maintaining a transparent recruitment process and a stable long-term workforce. The contractual recruitment process is scheduled to begin on Friday, according to the Health Minister’s announcement.
