Acute or Chronic shortage in the emergency wing

Faridabad's 200-bed civil hospital is struggling with an acute shortage of doctors in its emergency wing. The facility has only two medical officers instead of the required six, making it difficult to manage the influx of patients effectively.
Despite the appointments made by the health department, six doctors failed to join the duty, which aggravated the crisis. To meet the shortfall, field doctors are being posted on temporary deputation, but hospital insiders say this is not a sufficient solution.

The situation is particularly dire at night when doctors are often unavailable to attend to serious cases. Additionally, the shortage of General Duty Assistants (GDAs) has further strained hospital operations, affecting patient care.

Long-term absences and vacancies

According to RTI information obtained by Ajay Saini, a local resident, six doctors appointed between 2014 and 2023 failed to report for duty, shockingly, one doctor has been absent since November 24, 2014, without any official notification, yet dismissal orders have not been issued.

The hospital is operating below the sanctioned capacity. Currently, the hospital has only 41 doctors against the approved 55, leaving vacancies in key specialties, including:

• Radiology

• Psychology

• Forensic medicine

• Neurosurgery

• Stomach

The absence of a radiologist means that ultrasound procedures are handled by the Deputy Chief Medical Officer (CMO) on a part-time basis.

Activists expressed concern over the shortage of medicines.

Activist Satish Chopra, who has been protesting for 71 days demanding a trauma center, claims that the hospital, too, has a 20-30 percent shortage of medicines at any given time. However, Dr Vikas Goyal, Principal Medical Officer (PMO), denies this, saying that retired doctors have been hired and there is no shortage of medicines.

(Input from various sources)

(Rehash/Muhammad Faisal/MSM)