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Chandigarh: PGIMER patients pained by long delays in elective surgeries
Though the Covid-19 cases have been declining since June, patients approaching PGIMER, Chandigarh, complain doctors are still asking them to wait for three to four months
Despite the decline in Covid-19 cases in the region, patients’ struggle to secure appointment dates for elective surgeries at Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) continues.
While the number of Covid patients admitted at the hospital has also dropped sharply, the institute is performing only half the elective surgeries as compared to the pre-Covid times, and patients are being asked to wait for three to four months for a surgery date.
Elective surgery is a procedure scheduled in advance because it does not involve a medical emergency.
Before the virus outbreak, over 200 such surgeries were being conducted every day at various departments of the hospital, as per the authorities.
But as Covid cases started surfacing in March 2020, elective surgeries and physical out-patient departments (OPDs) were suspended, with only emergency services continuing.
Though elective surgeries were resumed in September, their number never returned to 200 per day. Patients’ long wait was extended further as the planned surgeries were once again called off in March 2021 due to the second wave of the pandemic.
While appointments for surgeries resumed at the hospital in June, since then the number has risen to only around 100 per day, despite the huge pendency.
Ritu Singla, a 37-year-old woman from Mansa, Punjab, said, “Due to varicose veins, I have been consulting PGIMER’s neurology department for the last few years. My condition worsened last year, so surgery was the only option for relief. But doctors asked me to wait till cases started declining.”
“I approached the hospital again in April this year. But even with the Covid cases receding, my wait for an appointment date has not ended. Doctors still want me to wait for another three months. But I cannot bear the pain anymore, so I am approaching a private hospital,” she said.
Suffering from kidney stones, Vijay Mishra, a resident of Kangra, Himachal Pradesh, is in the same boat: “I got operated for kidney stones at PGIMER a few years back. But I was again diagnosed with small stones again in June this year. Since then, I couldn’t get appointment for physical consultation at the OPD, despite trying the tele-consultation numbers several times. In August, I finally secured an OPD appointment, but now doctors have been telling me to wait for few more months to get surgery.”
‘Covid protocols take time’
As per PGIMER’s financial report of 2020-21, uploaded on the hospital’s official website, 2,61,837 minor and major elective surgeries were conducted at the institute in financial year 2019-20. Their number decreased to 34,428 in financial year 2020-21 due to Covid-19 restrictions – an 87% drop.
Meanwhile, at 14,704, emergency surgeries also dipped in 2020-21 from 24,022 in 2019-2020.
As per the medical records department of the PGIMER, as many as 1,693 emergency surgeries and 3,452 elective surgeries were done in August this year, followed by 1,057 emergency surgeries and 2,302 elective surgeries in September so far.
“To handle the Covid-19 surge, various medical institutes in the country had to suspend the elective surgeries, leading to huge pendency. The PGIMER departments are working at full capacity at present and are performing maximum surgeries, keeping in mind the Covid-19 guidelines. Every patient gets tested for Covid-19 and comorbidities before the surgery, and the procedure takes time,” said Dr AK Gupta, dean (research)-cum-medical superintendent, PGIMER.
He added, “We are gradually catching up to the pre-pandemic pace for providing medical facilities to non-Covid patients. Both elective surgery count and OPD facilities are being ramped up gradually.”
