The female wing of Government Doon Medical College (GDMC) Hospital remains plagued by acute staff crunch which often results in face-offs between the aggrieved relatives of the patients and hospital staffs. The hospital has only seven specialist gynaecologists while it needs at least 21 doctors to cater to the huge patient load.
The medical superintendent ( MS) of the female wing of GDMC, Dr Meenakshi Joshi said that 58692 OPD patients have visited the hospital till October 31 this year while the 15977 IPD patients have been admitted in the hospital till date. She said that number of deliveries in the hospital is also increasing every year ( See table).
Dr Joshi said that after merger of the hospital in the medical college, the number of beds had been officially reduced to 60 while the hospital, in view of huge patient load, has adjusted 130 beds. She added that the erstwhile Doon Female Hospital was having a memorandum of understanding ( MoU) with Mahant Indiresh hospital and Himalayan Hospital Jollygrant under which complicated cases were referred there. However after the hospital became part of a medical college this system is being not practiced, she said.
The bad days of the hospital had started when it along with the Doon Hospital had been merged with the GDMC to fulfil the regulations of the Medical Council of India (MCI) for a medical college in 2016. The merger of these hospitals ensured that Dehradun was left with no district hospital. The erstwhile Doon Female Hospital had a sanctioned capacity of 110 beds while it had 21 doctors. But when it was merged in the medical college the number of beds was reduced to 60 to fulfil the MCI guidelines. Accordingly, the number of posts of doctors was also reduced to eight.
Though the capacity of the hospital was reduced in absence of other health facility the patient inflow in the hospital kept on increasing. At present the hospital has adjusted 130 beds but it is not sufficient with over 150 patients visiting the hospital daily. The hospital also caters to a large number of pregnancy cases which ensures that it is always overloaded with patients. The hospital at present has only seven gynaecologists while 21 nurses are deployed here. The hospital has only one radiologist due to which the expectant mothers has to wait for one month to get the ultrasound done. The Neonatal ward of the hospital is also plagued by shortage of the staff and equipment like ventilators and baby warmers.