VELLORE: A day after the Government Ambur Hospital lost two lives due to the absence of duty doctors, two doctors were redirected from nearby hospitals on Monday and a new Medical Officer (MO) replaced the Medical Officer in-charge, on whose watch the incident happened.
On Sunday, an accident patient had waited on the surgical table for over 3 hours for medical attention before succumbing. This was followed by the death of a teenaged heart patient, though the hospital has claimed that she was brought dead.
As outcry poured in from several places, the stark difference between the number of doctors shown on record and the actual number of doctors available, became apparent. In all, the health officials are being blamed for managing the roll poorly, which resulted in the mess on Sunday.
While records show that the Ambur GH has 12 doctors, only six are available. Six others are deployed on other duties, or redirected to other hospitals.
“For the last six months, only six doctors were working here. Of them, three or four doctors will be on leave and the rest struggle with the inflow of patients every day,” said sources.
The doctors themselves are not happy with the situation. “During the doctors’ counselling conducted by Medical Services Recruitment Board (MRB), the vacancies in Ambur GH never come up, as the documents show that there are adequate doctors here.
Though they are on the roll call, some doctors are deployed elsewhere and this never gets reflected in the records. This system has to go,” said a doctor. “The posts of doctors on deployment should be shown vacant,” he added.
As way of immediate action, MO in-charge Sharmila was relieved and Dr Kennedy, the MO who was deployed on another state project, assumed charges on Monday. A doctor from the hospital at K V Kuppam also took charge and another doctor, being sent from the Government Gudiyatham Hospital, will join on Tuesday.