No anaesthetists, surgeries on hold at DDU Hospital in Shimla

Subhash Rajta

Shimla, April 25

There hasn’t been any anaesthetist at Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital (DDUH) in Shimla for nearly a month now. As a result, all surgeries, except that of eyes, have been put on hold at the hospital, causing inconvenience to the patients.

“We have apprised the government of the situation and have been assured that anaesthetists will be posted here shortly,” said Dr Lokinder Sharma of the hospital. The hospital had four anaesthetists but all left for their senior residency about a month back. Being one of the three zonal hospitals — the other being in Dharamsala and Mandi — the hospital has been functioning without an anaesthetist for nearly a month.

The hospital has a footfall of around 700-800 patients per day and nearly 15-20 surgeries used to be conducted in a week (mainly general and orthopaedic). No interim arrangement has been made to keep the operation theatres functioning till the posting of new doctors.

“The situation at the hospital is bad. Apart from absence of anaesthetists, there’s no doctor of surgery and most departments have only one doctor each,” said a DDU hospital doctor, requesting anonymity.

“While the patients are being inconvenienced, the situation is no different for the doctors too. They have to attend OPD, manage emergency, wards and go for medico-legal cases as well,” the doctor said. Frequent VIP movement and attending medical-legal cases add to the burden of the hospital. “It leads to doctors’ absenteeism from the OPDs, causing inconvenience to patients coming from distant places,” the doctor said.

“The hospital was upgraded to a zonal hospital but the staff have not been increased. Our staff should be at par with zonal hospitals of Mandi and Dharamsala,” said Dr Sharma.