10 yrs on, AIIMS-Patna misses deadline for starting emergency services

Ten years since its inception, Patna’s All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) has failed to keep its internal deadline on commencing dedicated non-traumatic, medical emergency services, which was supposed to have begun from Tuesday, said officials at the institute.

PATNA: Ten years since its inception, Patna’s All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) has failed to keep its internal deadline on commencing dedicated non-traumatic, medical emergency services, which was supposed to have begun from Tuesday, said officials at the institute.

A view of AIIMS Patna. (HT Photo)

“We are now trying to begin the services hopefully by March 31,” said the director of AIIMS-Patna, Dr Saurabh Varshney, who is instrumental behind the initiative since he took charge at the institute on December 4.

“There are some logistics, manpower, and equipment-related issues. We are trying our best to sort them out as early as possible. I think the delay is reasonable,” added Dr Varshney, after a marathon meeting with senior faculty members of the hospital administration, administrative and engineering officials on Monday evening.

He, however, parried a question on the “monumental delay” in initiating the services 10 years after the inception of the institute in 2012.

“I am sure my predecessors would have done their best to do it. I cannot comment on them,” said Dr Varshney.

Pending procurement and construction work has been cited as the primary reasons for the delay in commencing the medical emergency services, said officials.

Insiders, however, say that the turf war among a few senior faculty members over vacating the allotted space for a medical emergency was responsible for the delay in exceeding the March 15 deadline.

The space for a medical emergency, on the ground floor of the indoor patient department (IPD) building, is occupied by the paediatric surgery emergency after it was allotted by the then director Dr PK Singh around a year back. A senior faculty of the department was reluctant to relocate, prompting Dr Varshney to issue an order around 10 days back.

The initiative has ruffled feathers of some senior faculty members and created bad blood among them, said, insiders. Officials at the institute were, however, tight-lipped about the acrimony among a section of doctors and refused to speak on the record.

People aware of the matter said a senior faculty member of the trauma and emergency department had written to Dr Singh, a year back, to free up its space given to the paediatric surgery department, in order to avoid crowding of patients and their attendants.

There were also allegations that the standard operating protocol of stabilising and resuscitating a patient in a medical emergency, before deciding on admission and allotment of bed, was not being followed in the trauma emergency department at AIIMS-Patna, and most of the patients were being referred to other government facilities from the ambulance itself, citing lack of beds.

In the past, parliamentarians have urged the director to strengthen medical emergency services, which they alleged existed only on paper at the institute.

The trauma emergency department at AIIMS-Patna has seven faculty members against a sanctioned strength of 12 of which there are four dedicated surgeons, one paediatric surgeon, and two anaesthetists. It is presently seized with treating trauma-related cases, requiring surgical intervention, barring orthopaedic injuries. Most of the medical emergency cases coming to the institute are referred to other government facilities, citing lack of beds