New Delhi, Jan 19 (IANS): Over 250 posts of labaratory technicians are lying vacant in various Delhi government hospitals for the past two years, a health official said.

Filling these 257 vacancies of lab technicians in the hospitals is necessary, as staff shortage delays various important test and treatments during the urgent situations leading, at times, to the death of the patients.

"The posts that need to be filled up are 150 technical supervisors, 52 lab technicians, 29 technical assistant and 26 lab assistant," said the official who did not want to be named.

He said that the hospitals where the posts were lying vacant included Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital, Lok Nayak Hospital and G.B. Pant Hospital.

He said there was no immediate attempt by the government to fill up these vacancies.

Hari Mohan Sharma, general secretary for the Delhi Hospital Laboratory Technician Staff Association said that the hospitals have also delayed the departmental promotions of the existing staff.

"Only, once the existing staff are promoted to a higher post, the new staff can be recruited. The promotions have been delayed for the past 7-8 years...," he said.

He said that though several letters were written to the Delhi health secretary, principal secretary and even to the Lieutenent Governor, but nothing happened.

"If the situation remains the same we are ready to go to court and stage a strike. We will stop our work at the hospitals," he said.