Parsekar’s promise to upgrade the hospital yet to be fulfiled; still no round-the-clock Chief Medical Officer
TEAM HERALD
MARGAO: Hospicio doctors, nurses and other staff had come in for special praise from Health Minister, Laxmikant Parsekar, during his maiden visit to the hospital around a year ago.
The reason was simple: He found the doctors and nurses running a good show despite manpower constraints and other difficulties. He was pained to find patients undergoing treatment on the floor for want of beds, but heaped praises on the doctors for leaving no one unattended.
And before leaving the hospital, Parsekar had promised to put the Hospicio in order, assuring to upgrade the hospital to meet the requirements.
A year down the line, Hospicio is still facing a severe manpower crunch ~ be it doctors, nurses, servants and paramedical staff. There’s a shortage of consultants, medical officers, doctors, nurses, lab and x-ray assistants, servants et al. While official statistics may dish out only a couple of vacancies, doctors in the know say time has come to beef up the manpower requirements on a priority basis to meet the growing requirements.
Says a senior doctor in the know: “The number of patients availing medical facilities in Hospicio is on the rise. Statistics would show the huge rise in Hospicio patients. But the strength of doctors, nurses and servants, besides paramedical staff have not witnessed a corresponding rise over the years. There’s a shortage in all the departments.”
Take the case of the casualty. Sources said that Hospicio casualty does not have a round-the-clock Chief Medical Officer and the ward doctors man the situation in his absence.
Added another senior doctor: “What Hospicio badly requires is minimum three consultants in each of the departments. The pressure is too much on the doctors. One doctor is down with sickness and the system goes haywire. The departments of Surgery, Orthopaedic, Paediatrics, ENT, Medicine, etc are also in need of additional hands to cope up with the load.”
The same is the case with nurses and servants. “Hospicio is in dire need of nurses to take care of the rising patients. The statistics may point to only a few vacancies, but we have to take into account the current situation,” remarked the doctor.
No doubt, sources say, the long-delayed operation theatres were put in operation after the Health Minister’s visit, but the commissioning of the OTs have not helped much to clear the backlog of surgeries for want of adequate doctors and nurses. Patients still have to wait in a queue for their turns for minor surgeries for want of doctors and staff.
