HYDERABAD: The Government ENT Hospital at Koti has all diagnostic facilities like X-ray and ultrasound scan. But patients are being forced to approach private diagnostic centres because the hospital does not have sufficient number of technicians. It is bereft of a radiologist, microbiologist and biochemist.
“We have set up three departments-radiology, microbiology and biochemistry recently and are urging the government to sanction at least an assistant professor for each department as it improves their functioning,” hospital superintendent C Ramakrishna said.
According to Ramakrishna, every day at least 30 patients are sent out to private diagnostic centres for examining throat swabs and puss for culture sensitivity which costs about Rs 200 and CT Scan which costs from Rs 1,500 to Rs 3,000.
Arguably one of the largest hospitals in Asia, it handles about 1,500 patients every day. However, it’s not doctors but the staff who run the show.
If a doctor examines a patient on Thursday and refers him or her for X-ray and ask them to come back with the report on Monday, the staff at the X-ray lab ask him to come on Thursday, stating that it will take one week.
Even after making them aware that the doctor wants the report on Monday, they ask the patients to convey the same to the doctor and force them to get the X-ray done at private centres.
They are also reported to shout at patients, giving an impression they are under-staffed and burdened with a lot of work.
The superintendent who initially said they did not have enough staff, later said there was no problem in X-ray. The hospital citizen charter assures to give X-ray report within two days but it seems nobody is in the least bothered. The staff start to deny the services from 12 noon itself.
Helpless, patients wait for sometime and go back home to return the next day as instructed. When asked, Ramakrishna maintained he would set right things, if such instances were brought to his notice. But the reality is that neither patients nor their attendants have any access to him.
The ultrasound machine remains dysfunctional due to the lack of a radiologist. The hospital is also planning to get a CT scan and carbon dioxide laser machine used in early detection and treatment of cancer by this month.
The hospital has been performing cochlear surgeries which cost about Rs 8 to Rs 10 lakh under Arogyasri. All those who underwent cochlear surgeries are going to schools like normal children, according to the hospital authorities.
The hospital has five operation theatres and about 50 surgeries are performed daily. “One doctor can examine 10 patients. As numbers are more, naturally attention span comes down,” the superintendent said.
The hospital has 25 doctors on its rolls. About 30 to 50 patients are admitted every day and at any given day, the number of in-patients number around 200.
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