Staff crunch hits services at municipal hospitals …Madhavi Rajadhyaksha I TNN
Mumbai: A notice pasted outside the ENT department of civic-run Sion hospital informs patients that outpatient services have been curtailed to thrice a week from the usual six-day schedule.
The notice is an indicator of a deeper malaise stalking BMC hospitalsan acute shortage of doctorswhich is necessitating such desperate measures.
The shortage was discussed at a meeting convened by BMC commissioner Jairaj Phatak on Tuesday. We have a deadline to fill doctor vacancies by April 15, said a doctor who attended the meeting.
The vacancies cut across ranksfrom the seniormost level of professors, mid-level associate professors to lower-ranked lecturers. This, in turn, has reduced the number of resident doctors working in these public hospitals.
Take the case of Sion hospitals ENT department. An associate professor left 18 months ago and her post has been lying vacant despite there being several takers for the job. The department is currently functioning with only one professor and a lecturer, after another lecturer went on medical leave and three resident doctors took study leave. To juggle operations with the outpatient services, the OPD has been cut down to alternate daysMonday, Wednesday and Friday.
Patients (numbering around 100) like Damodhar Vithal from Dharavi, who was there for a check-up on Tuesday with a tingling sensation in his right ear, are merely asked to come later. The waiting list for surgeries has shot up to three months.
The authorities said the OPD services have been curtailed to ensure the safety of patients. We need senior teachers to conduct operations as well as supervise OPDs. To avoid unsupervised patient care, we have taken this step. We are filling the vacancies on a war footing, said the acting dean, Dr J Mondkar.
From red-tape stalling promotions and advertisement of vacant posts to no takers for the jobs, the system faces several hurdles. And the crisis isnt in ENT alone.
An internal notice recently issued by the BMC pegs the overall vacancies (lecturer level) at 132 across hospitals, including 50 in anaesthesia, 12 in medicine and seven in forensics. Asked about the situation, additional municipal commissioner Kishore Gajbhiye told TOI, I am doing a review of the vacancies every week and we have recently filled up many posts. He said there was a ban on recruitments for eight years, which was lifted in October 2006.
But activists arent convinced. The poor patients suffer the most. Have civic officials made genuine efforts to fill the vacancies? And why are they sitting over promotions? The civic corporation knows that a post will fall vacant well in advance and can prevent such crises with better planning, said activist Kewal Semlani.
The activist pointed out that the BMC needs to make the working environment congenial in hospitals as there are better opportunities in the corporate sector today.
STUDY ON DOCTORS
STUDY ON DOCTORS
For the first time, three municipal-run medical institutions in Mumbai will conduct a study on doctors contracting tuberculosis (TB) in hospitals, where they are exposed to deadly germs. The preventive and social medicines of KEM, Sion and Nair hospitals have also begun a study of occupationally exposed diseases (OED), including hepatitis B and HIV, on the doctors and other staffers, a member of the Maharashtra Association of Resident Doctors (MARD), Deepak Rothak, said. This will be the first study where several parameters will be considered to assess the exact picture of OEDs. AGENCIES
CRITICAL SITUATION: A notice at Sion hospitals ENT department informing patients that the OPD services have been curtailed