Shortage of doctors ails Baramulla dist hospital

Samaan Lateef

Tribune News Service

Baramulla, May 5

The dearth of doctors and paramedic staff at Government District Hospital, Baramulla, is affecting healthcare. At least 22 posts of doctor and over 50 paramedic staff are lying vacant in the newly established 200-bedded hospital.

“After every three days, a gynaecologist has to come for night duty,” said a senior official at the hospital.

Large queues of patients can be seen in the corridors of the OPD of the hospital. “I see more than 150 patients per day in the OPD. If I am in the operation theatre, I perform five surgeries per day,” said a junior doctor.

“If posted in the emergency ward, I along with another junior doctor see at least 400 patients apart from the existing patients,” he said. In the Surgery Department, which receives at least 400 patients in the OPD per day, there are five consultants and four junior doctors.

“We perform 15 major surgeries per week. On an average, we perform gall bladders surgery on three patients per day,” said a doctor in the Surgery Department.

“We become easy target of angry attendants as well. Since it is not possible for us to cater to such a huge rush of patients, attendants get angry and beat us,” he said.

“Several of my colleagues were beaten up by attendants just because machines had shown varied reports,” said another doctor. He said patients think the responsibility of everything lies on doctors only.

“Be it a wrong report from a machine or ill-treatment meted out to a patient by paramedic staff here, we have to bear the brunt,” he said.

A consultant in the Surgery Department said the hospital had maximum number of patients from other districts. “We get patients from the outskirts of Srinagar, Kupwara and Bandipora. They travel 50 km for treatment here because they think this hospital is a branch of the SKIMS, Soura,” he said.

Chief Medical Officer,Baramulla, Dr Bashir Ahmad Chalkoo said out of the 74 sanctioned posts of doctor in the hospital, 52 were posted there, adding that of the 33 sanctioned posts of nurse, only 17 were there.

He admitted that hospital was facing “severe” shortage of doctors and paramedic staff. “Junior doctors are filling the gaps due to non-availability of consultants. Also, nurses appointed through the National Rural Health Mission are helping in sharing the work,” he said.

Medical Superintendent Dr Syed Masood said the hospital received 2,000-2,500 patients per day in its OPD. However, he claimed that the hospital had seen vertical decline of 60 per cent in the referrals to tertiary care hospitals in the past one month.

Of three sanctioned posts of gynaecologist consultants, the hospital has only two consultants. Besides, there is “severe shortage” of junior doctors in the gynaecology department.

Spread over 248 kanals, the new hospital was established in April 2013 to cater to a population of over 10 lakh people. However, locals say government was not doing enough to upgrade the infrastructure of the hospital. “Making necessary changes is not everything. It is about caring for the suffering people of the Valley,” said Shabir Ahmad, a local.