UCHCs reel under severe staff shortage in district
Urban Community Health Centres (UCHCs) were set up for providing easily accessible, comprehensive primary healthcare services specifically tailored to needs of urban populations. With all six UCHCs in Ludhiana reeling under staff shortage, the sole purpose of these stands defied. Though the state Health Department last year recruited 400 doctors, it has failed to change the fate of the UCHCs and these continue to reel under staff shortage.
There are six UCHCs in Ludhiana located at Chandigarh Road, Subhash Nagar, Civil Surgeon Complex, Shimlapuri, Giaspura and Jawaddi.
For each UCHCs, there is one sanctioned post of medicine specialist, gynaecologist, paediatrician, dentist, pharmacist, lab technician and multi-task worker. In addition to this, there are posts of four medical officer and five staff nurse sanctioned for each centre.
For the six UCHCs, there are a total of 24 sanctioned posts of medical officer and only five are filled. There are six sanctioned posts of gynaecologist and only two are filled, of the six posts of paediatrician three are filled, there are six posts of surgeon and two are filled, for 30 sanctioned posts of staff nurse only 15 are filled, of the six posts each for multi-task worker, pharmacists and lab technician, only one is filled in each category. None of the post of medicine specialist (MS) is filled against the sanctioned posts of six and the only exception is post of dentist as all six sanctioned posts are filled.
The medicine specialist is a backbone of any healthcare system and the MS is generally the first doctor one sees after facing any health-related issue. Surprisingly, all the six UCHCs are without medicine specialists. None of the centres have a medicine specialist.
The UCHC at Subhash Nagar and Giaspura have only one dentist and one nurse each.
Of 400 new docs, only 17 allocated to dist
In December last year, a total of 400 new doctors were recruited in the state, of which only 17 were allocated to Ludhiana district. These were assigned duties at Civil Hospitals in Ludhiana, Raikot and Jagraon and UCHCs’ wait for doctors only got longer.
Ludhiana Civil Surgeon Pardeep Mohindra said the department was aware of staff shortage in the UCHCs.
“Doctors are being deputed from other health facilities to keep the work going. At UCHC located at Subhash Nagar, specialists from the Christian Medical College and Hospital are coming to provide the services,” he said.
