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Ludhiana: Docs off to VVIP event, patients suffer
Orthopaedic doctors, medicine physicians and general surgeons were on VVIP duty and an ENT specialist doctor took leave; Ludhiana civil hospital has an OPD of around 1,300 patients daily
With medical professionals from the civil hospital dispatched for a VVIP programme of chief minister Bhagwant Mann in the city on Monday, patients at the health care facility faced a tough time with queues piling up in front of the OPDS due to the absence of doctors.
Chief minister Mann was on Monday in the city to meet industrialists to showcase ‘Brand Punjab’ before the global industry coming to the state for participating in the Invest Punjab Summit on February 23-24.
Senior medical officer Dr. Amarjit Kaur said, “A group of medical professionals, including orthopaedic doctors, physicians, general surgeons, anaesthetists, blood transfusion officers, pharmacists, and laboratory technicians were assigned to go to a VIP programme.”
The absence of doctors resulted in a massive rush outside the orthopaedic, general surgery, medicine, eye and ENT OPDs.
There was only one skin specialist in the OPD available on Monday.
Orthopaedic doctors, medicine physicians and general surgeons were on VVIP duty and an ENT specialist doctor took leave. The civil hospital has an OPD of around 1,300 patients daily.
Civil Surgeon Dr. Hitinder Kaur said, “We try our best to make possible arrangements in such situations.”
Sultana Begum, a patient from Ram Nagar, said, “I am sitting in pain due to a head injury waiting for a doctor but there is no orthopaedic doctor in the OPD.”
Asha Devi, another patient of Dashmesh Nagar, said, “I am waiting here since 10am outside the medicine OPD but I came to know that the doctor has gone for some VVIP duty.”
Rajan Kumar, a patient in the ENT ward said, “I am suffering through severe pain in my ear. The doctor is on leave today.”
Due to the shortage of doctors in OPDs, the patients were forced to take medicine from the emergency ward, increasing its workload. The 300-bed civil hospital in Ludhiana is facing a significant staff shortage, including of doctors and supporting staff like nurses and Class IV employees. The hospital has only four emergency medical officers available. Earlier, the hospital was getting two MBBS doctors from the periphery.
Sources indicate that the shortage of medical staff at the civil hospital in Ludhiana is being exacerbated by the assignment of MBBS doctors to new Aam Aadmi Clinics (AACs).
To address this issue, the hospital administration is assigning emergency duties to specialist doctors, leading to an increased workload in both the emergency and OPD departments.
There are 15 Emergency Medical Officers (EMOs) and out of these only four are filled and six are vacant as five specialist doctors’ adjustment is made against the five posts of EMOs. As per the IPHS guidelines, a 100-bedded hospital must have 105 staff members.
