Civil Hospital staff complain of overburden

Ajay Joshi

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, April 23

The Civil Hospital is facing a shortage of staff, including doctors, lab technicians and nurses. The staff have to work either overtime or perform additional duties.

Due to the staff crunch, interns and nursing students are also examining patients.

Medical Superintendent Kanwaljit Singh said around 10 posts of doctor were vacant in various departments. The most affected departments are gynaecologist, paediatrician, blood transfusion section and pathology laboratory. The posts of Senior Medical Officer (SMO) and Medical Officer (MO) have been lying vacant since long in the HIV/AIDS treatment cell.

During a visit to the treatment cell, employees narrated a different story. A counsellor at the cell said, “Besides counseling, we are doing the work of pharmacists, nurses and attendants. At times, it becomes tough to check the expiry dates of medicines. It can only be done by a pharmacist.”

The laboratory of the tuberculosis branch is also grappling with the shortage of staff. It lacks a technician for conducting sputum microscopy.

A senior doctor at the maternity ward said at least, eight to nine doctors were required as per the norms,, but only four were working at present in the 100-bedded maternity department. The doctor said only a junior doctor was working to assist the senior doctors.

She added that there were not enough sweepers for cleaning the department.

The situation is similar in the blood transfusion hall as well. Dr Gagandeep Singh said the Civil Hospital had been facing a shortage of paramedical staff. He said, “We have to ask other departments to depute the staff. Though we are managing it in the hospital, it becomes difficult to conduct blood camps.”

Nursing students at the hospital are also unhappy with the shortage. They said as doctors, nurses and other data entry workers were not available all the time, they had to work at the reception and injection rooms, besides performing important works that needed doctors’ supervision.

Kanwaljit said, “Most of the doctors are holding additional charges. Many times, patients have to refer to private medical colleges. The higher authorities have been informed about the shortage a number of times, but to no avail.”