CHENNAI: A distressed father of a five-month-old child, who had been frequenting the Kancheepuram Government Hospital for the child’s congenital breathing problem, petitioned the district collector on Monday to fill vacancies in the hospital as the shortage in the number of doctors in the hospital left his son almost always not being attended to in the hospital.
“They would make us wait till the evening only to ask us to come the next day. I have to take my kid to a private clinic, which is too costly for me to afford,” said P Nagaraj, a resident of Pillayarpalayam village in the district and who makes his living as a weaver.
He blamed these issues on the inadequate number of paediatricians and other specialists in the hospital as the reason for the doctors not being able to attend to his son.
“We have to travel around 2 kms to the hospital from our village. Every time, we go to the hospital, we lose our day’s earnings. But, the officials don’t understand our struggle,” said Pandian, grandfather of the child Harish.
Dr Vijayakumar, joint director of Directorate of Medical and Rural Services denied allegations that the hospital was short of pediatricians but Nagaraj cited the dates on which he was made to wait a whole day along with his five-month-old child, Harish.
Harish was born in the same hospital and was diagnosed with congenital breathing problems. The doctors had advised Nagaraj to bring the child for a check up once every month.
But, Nagaraj said most of the time, they have to return home without treatment.
For instance, he said on October 15, when, his wife took the child to the hospital, the staff collected the report around 9.30 am and around 4.30 pm asked her to leave without having seen a doctor.
However, Dr Vijayakumar said there are a total of nine paediatricians in the hospital which is adequate. He said out of the 72 sanctioned posts, only seven remain vacant.
CVMP Ezhilarasan, MLA of the Kancheepuram constituency contradicted Dr Vijayakumar claiming that only 54 doctors are posted to the hospital. “There are vacancies is some of the key wings like paediatrics, orthopaedic and anaesthesiology,” Ezhilarasan said.