Lone government hospital battles staff crunch even as population grows

Civil Hospital, Malaudh, figures among those government healthcare centres in the state that are battling with a dwindling number of medical officers and paramedical staff with every successive government, whereas the population of this town, hence the number of patients seeking medical assistance, has continuously risen.

Residents of over 40 localities, within a radius of 15 km, are dependent on the Civil Hospital here for diagnosis and treatment. These individuals are a harried lot due to the lack of facilities—both human resources and infrastructure.

A shortage of paramedical staff and the frequent deployment of doctors to other healthcare centres were cited as the major factors behind the predicament of the lone government healthcare centre in the town. Key posts of doctors and paramedical staff are yet to be filled. Residents said they had seen a ray of hope following the constitution of the Aam Aadmi Party government, they alleged that their appeals for the strengthening of healthcare services in the town had fallen on deaf ears and nothing concrete had yet been done for providing better infrastructure and regularisation of posts of doctors and paramedical staff.

The apathy of the authorities concerned towards the revamping of the facilities at the government hospital is believed to have benefitted the owners of private hospitals as they get a higher number of patients due to the lack of facilities at the government health centres.

Residents wondered why instead of enhancing arrangements at the already-existing hospital, the government had opened an Aam Aadmi Clinic in the vicinity. Failure to strengthen the diagnostic and clinical facilities at the healthcare centre have resulted in a situation wherein, the patient footfall has fallen considerably during the past years.

SMO Dr Harvinder Singh acknowledged that some posts of paramedical staff, including two pharmacy officers, had been vacant for a long time and two out of four doctors were presently on deputation at some other places. Two posts of medical officers are vacant, said the SMO, claiming that the healthcare centre had been providing the best possible medical facilities with the available resources.

“Though we are presently trying to provide the best possible services to patients visiting the healthcare centre, despite a scarcity of resources and staff, we hope to further add value to our services as and when we are provided the required pharmacy and medical officers, besides paramedical staff,” said Dr Singh, claiming that more than 100 patients were being examined and provided treatment at the hospitals OPDs daily.