NEW DELHI: With not enough rooms in hostels, the resident doctors at the Safdarjung Hospital are struggling. They have complained that for more than 2,000 resident doctors, only 80 hostel rooms are available due to which they are forced to live outside the campus, and in case of emergency, commuting becomes a major hassle for them.
“There are around 80-90 hostel rooms for around 2,000 resident doctors. These rooms are given on first come first served basis,” said a doctor working with the hospital. He added that the resident doctors have to be available for the services 24/7 and if they are living outside the campus, it proves to be troublesome for them to commute between residence and the hospital.
The problem is so acute that many resident doctors complain of stress and some of them have even resigned in the recent past. They also complain that the hostel waitlist takes two years to allot rooms. “You can get allotment it only if you have connections,” said a doctor who recently resigned from the hospital. According to doctors, they have been raising the issue with the officials but no action has been taken so far.
However, they added that the ministry has taken some initiative regarding the construction of new hostels for the doctors but it is still under the pipeline. Meanwhile, another issue that the doctors have raised is the unique identification of patients, a system provided in other central government hospitals like the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS). “Under this system, a unique ID of a new patient is created where all the relevant information is added right from testing to the treatments provided to him/her. This helps a doctor get the medical history of the patient,” said a doctor working with the hospital.