Diagnostic facilities unavailable at GMC’s Bebe Nanki Hospital

Tribune News Service

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Amritsar, June 7

In the absence diagnostic facilities at the Bebe Nanki Mother and Child Care Centre at Government Medical College, the centre seems to be incapable of dealing with emergency cases. Patients are often asked to visit private labs for minor tests which result in loss of time and money. Sources at the centre revealed that the arterial blood gas (ABG) test machine had become defunct.

“The test is crucial for patients who need emergency care,” said an insider, adding that the machine is also not available at the main ICU facility. Due to unavailability of staff, the ventilator is also lying idle and patients have to be shifted to the main ICU.

Sources revealed that the Serum electrolyte test to check potassium and chloride imbalance in body was also not available.

"Only a limited number of kits for the PTI (Prothrombin Time Index) test used for measuring time of blood plasma to clot are available at the centre. The kits have been made available recently but these are not sufficient,” said an insider.

Even for simple tests like platelet count, patients are forced to visit private labs, especially during evening and night hours. In the morning, these tests are conducted at the hospital. A faculty member said it hardly took 15 minutes for the test but doctors get the reports after a delay of two hours, which further delayed the treatment.

The centre is also reeling under shortage of higher antibiotics, which are required for critical patients. Such drugs are costly and poor patients can't afford to buy it from market.

As the government has been trying to check the maternal mortality rate (MMR), the absence of crucial facilities at the Government Medical College’s Hospital is a big blow to the plans. The GMC Hospital being a tertiary care centre is mostly visited by critical and complicated cases which are referred from primary care centres as sub-divisional hospitals and CHCs and secondary care centres as district hospitals from various districts.

GMC Principal Dr Sujata Sharma is on leave so not available for comments. Medical Superintendent Dr Surinder Paul did not respond to numerous phone calls.