3,000 patient footfall daily at IGMC-Shimla, hassles doctors

Tribune News Service

Subhash Rajta

Shimla, May 24

The daily footfall at the outdoor patient departments (OPDs) at the Indira Gandhi Medical College and Hospital hovers around 3,000. Patients have to spend hours waiting for their turn to consult doctors and undergo diagnostic tests. Doctors also struggle to give ample time to patients.

“Most of the patients visiting the IGMC don’t need to come here at all. Similarly, most surgeries done here can be performed at district, regional and civil hospitals,” says a senior doctor at the hospital.

“The problem is that patients do not have enough confidence in local health facilities. The uncertainty about the regular availability of doctors at the peripheral health facilities forces most patients to travel to the IGMC,” he says.

Recently, Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital, Shimla, and Civil Hospital, Theog, had remained shut for surgeries for want of anaesthetists.

“Such a situation increases burden on the IGMC,” says a doctor from the Department of Surgery. He says most surgeries like of gall bladder, hernia and biopsies can be done at regional health facilities.

“Besides saving patients unnecessary travel to Shimla and jostling at the already crowded hospital, this will help doctors to focus on patients who really need our attention,” the doctor says. “There has to be a policy at a government or an institutional level about which treatment will be offered here and which at other health facilities. Until then, people will continue to rush here even for minor ailments,” he said.

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