Ludhiana Civil Hospital: Shortage of specialist staff affects patient care

The 300-bedded Civil Hospital, catering to the entire district, is reeling under an acute shortage of specialist staff. On the one hand, the government is promising to provide world-class healthcare facilities at government hospitals, and on the other, one is forced to wonder how it will be possible in the absence of staff.

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The posts of medicine specialist, surgeon, blood transfusion officer and forensic expert is lying vacant.

A medicine specialist is the backbone of any hospital, but surprisingly, all the posts at the district’s largest government healthcare facility are vacant. The post has been vacant since the lone medicine specialist, Dr Amanpreet Kaur, was promoted as District Health and Family Welfare Officer in March. Now, all three posts of medicine specialists are vacant and patients are left to suffer.

Dr Amanpreet Kaur had been serving as the medical specialist at the hospital for eight years. Now, two specialists have been assigned fixed duties for three days each in a week and whenever either of them goes on a leave, the patients are left high and dry.

The Civil Hospital has a daily OPD footfall of around 2,000 patients, of which 50-60 per cent seek consultations from the medicine department.

Rita Kumari, a patient, was taken aback when she was asked to meet another doctor instead of Dr Amanpreet. “I have been coming for consultations here for the past year and now, I was told she has been transferred. I asked them where she had been transferred to but nobody told me,” she rued.

Since September 2024, the hospital is working without a forensic expert making things harder for the hospital administration as they get 7-10 cases of post-mortem a day and presently it is taking them a day’s time to prepare the final report. A forensic expert from Khanna has to be called here to conduct the post-mortem, along with other specialists, including Surgery, Orthopaedic, ENT, Skin, Eye and Microbiologists, who perform the post-mortem duty, many a time at the cost of their own work.

A specialist from the hospital said he had to leave his OPD work to perform a post-mortem. “A forensic expert should be posted here at the earliest as it is taking a toll on our work,” he added.

The post of a blood transfusion officer (BTO) is also lying vacant. The main duty of a BTO is to ensure the safe and effective management of blood products, from collection to administration. Their duties also include overseeing blood bank operations, ensuring adherence to safety protocols and educating both medical staff and patients about transfusion practices. They also play a vital role in quality control and assurance, as well as inventory management and now no one is performing these duties at the the Civil Hospital.

A surgeon is another important post that is lying vacant. Earlier, 20-25 surgeries were performed in the hospital every month but now the number has decreased as surgeons are called on deputation.

In the Skin, Dental and ENT departments too, there is only one specialist each. Whenever the doctor is on another duty or on leave, patients have to bear the brunt of his absence.

There is only one radiologist who is taking care of ultrasound cases, CT/MRI scans, medico-legal cases, bone ossification test, X-ray and attending court hearings. Around 900 ultrasounds, 100 CT scans (medico-legal) and 25 age-estimation tests are done at the hospital every month.

Along with cases from the city, cases from rural areas are also referred to the hospital. The heavy footfall every day has resulted in a long waiting period at the OPD.

Civil Surgeon Dr Ramandeep Kaur said they had written to the higher authorities about the staff crunch and the need to fill up vacant posts.