VASCO: Raising concern over the non-availability of doctors in the casualty section even during the day, citizens from the port town have demanded immediate deployment of doctors by the State Government at the Cottage Hospital, Chicalim which is one of the busiest state-run hospitals catering to over a lakh people.
Citing some examples where patients visiting the casualty section had to literally wait for hours together to get medical attention, a resident of Vasco claimed that his close friend and a few other patients had to face severe hardships as the hospital had only one doctor on duty who was busy attending to patients at OPD, while there was no doctor to attend patients in the casualty section.
“The emergency care facility’s state of affairs is appalling. The shortage of doctors for quite some time now has been pushing people to the wall. Ironically, this hospital’s facilities were recognised and upgraded to sub-District Hospital, but in real terms nothing much happened to facilitate the needy,” said Vinayak Kumbhar a patient’s relative.
Similar concerns were raised by others, including the in-patients who also complained that the situation where patients have to wait for doctors for a long time has become a routine affair. As per information available, nearly 400 to 500 people visit the OPDs of the hospital, but in the absence of medical officers these days, they either have to wait in long queues or return home or else they are compelled to visit private hospitals.
Several written requests made by the health officials of Cottage Hospital mentioning the difficulties faced by the staff due to absence of medical officers and requesting more doctors or at least to fill up the existing vacant posts but there has been no response.
“It is true that recently there was only one duty doctor and he had to handle the OPD as well as the casualty section all by himself. We don’t have a separate doctor for the casualty ward and whoever handles OPD also handles casualty and due to shortage of doctors, patients some time may face hardships,” admitted health officer of Vasco Urban Health Centre Dr Rashmi Khandeparkar.
She said, “We have four posts for doctors here while our strength is only three and if anyone takes leave, the operations crash. As this hospital has been designated as Sub District hospital, the department has to give us more doctors.”
