Despite availability of adequate equipment, the Bhubaneswar Municipal Hospital has no doctors to operate the highly specialised instruments at its disposal.
The Endoscopic unit in the Municipal Hospital was inaugurated in 1993 and the Ultrasound unit in 1994. The hospital had procured high-end equipment for laparoscopy five years ago. But lack of expert hand in operating the equipment made it obsolete. The Directorate of Health Services took back the laparoscopy equipment last year, as it was gathering dust.
The endoscopy and ultrasound units are also on the verge of going out of order. These equipments are lying defunct as there are no doctors who can operate them. The equipments were procured by the hospital about four years ago.
The hospital’s chief municipal medical officer N K Sahu said lack of adequate doctors was the main reason behind the equipments lying defunct. “The doctors have to undergo training to learn how to operate these high end equipments. The training programmes are not sponsored by any organisation ,” Sahu said. None of existing doctors in Municipal Hospital has undertaken any training to operate these equipments, he added.