IGMC faces shortage of staff

Subhash Rajta

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Tribune News Service

Shimla, August 28

The state’s premier health institution — Indira Gandhi Medical College & Hospital (IGMC) in Shimla — is struggling to provide the best possible care to its patients due to an acute shortage of support staff.

From staff nurses to administrative staff, paramedics to Class IV employees, radiographers to physiotherapists, there’s a shortage of at least 25 to 50 per cent employees in most categories. And with heavy footfall and the growing cases of Covid-19, the hospital is feeling the pinch of the staff shortage now more than ever.

“We are far short of the strength sanctioned about 20-25 years back when the total number of beds was 500 to 600. Now, we have 1,100 beds. Many new departments have come up, yet the sanctioned strength in most categories remains more or less the same as what it was 20 years back. Amid the Covid crisis, it has become all the more difficult to manage the workload,” rued an official of the hospital.

The recent cases of asymptomatic patients in the hospital have compounded the problem. “Doctors and support staff in Covid duties have to be quarantined for two weeks. So with every positive case, especially asymptomatic, we are losing staff, which we can hardly afford at the moment,” said a senior doctor. “Besides, with testing going up, the workload has increased manifold in our microbiology department. Staff has been working late into the night,” he said.

The closure of OPDs in the city’s Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital, a dedicated Covid hospital, has also diverted patients to the IGMC, resulting in a massive load on the staff.

“We have two patients on a single bed in many wards. There’s no space but you can’t turn away patients needing immediate care,” the doctor said.

Besides, patients from far-off places like Una, too, are coming to the IGMC for treatment even though Chandigarh and Jalandhar are much closer.

“Normally, we go to Chandigarh and Jalandhar but because the IGMC is relatively Covid-free, we opted for it this time,” said Sanjay Sharma, whose mother has been admitted to the hospital for a kidney ailment.