ANGUL: Acute shortage of doctors has hit health services in the district headquarters hospital (DHH) here.While there are only 22 doctors against the sanctioned posts of 48 in the DHH, the State Government has transferred several medicos in the last several months, thereby crippling healthcare delivery in the hospital.Apart from Angul, people of Keonjhar, Deogarh, Dhenkanal, Boudh and Sambalpur districts also depend on the hospital which is situated by the side of National Highway-55.
Sources said about 100 patients are admitted in the DHH on a daily basis. Besides, hundreds of patients visit the hospital for outdoor health services per day. The inflow of patients to the DHH is increasing with each passing day.In such a situation, instead of filling up the vacant doctor posts, the Government is transferring the existing medicos. As per reports, the State Government has transferred at least nine doctors from the DHH since November last year.
The doctors who have been transferred include specialists in eye, medicine, mental health, child and surgery. The most recent transfer to be made was that of anaesthesia specialist Arun Kumar Sahu.Last Friday, Sahu had to administer anaesthesia on three patients. After he was done with the first surgery, he received his transfer and relieve letter following which he left the hospital without attending to the other two patients. The incident sparked an outrage in the town.
On the other hand, the Government is yet to find any replacement for the transferred doctors. “Instead of filling up the vacant posts, the Government is transferring doctors without any replacement which is really unfortunate. The hospital is in complete disarray without doctors,” said Parsuram Das, a social worker.
“We will resort to agitation if the State Government fails to post adequate number of doctors in the DHH,” Das added.Contacted, Chief District Medical Officer RC Garnaik admitted that there was an acute shortage of doctors in DHH. “We have written to the Government in this regard,” he added.
Emergency case
There are only 22 doctors against the sanctioned posts of 48 in Angul DHH
The State Government has transferred at least nine doctors from the DHH since November last year
Apart from Angul, people of Keonjhar, Deogarh, Dhenkanal, Boudh and Sambalpur districts also depend on the hospital
The doctors who have been transferred include specialists in eye, medicine, mental health, child and surgery