The visit of President Pranab Mukherjee to state capital would weigh heavily on the patients of the associated hospital of Government Doon Medical College (GDMC) as six doctors from the hospital have been deputy to attend the President. The President of India is on a three day visit to Uttarakhand from Tuesday.
The doctors drawn for the Presidential duty are Physicians Dr Harish Basera and Dr K C Pant/ Dr S D Joshi, orthopedics Dr S K Gupta and Dr Anil Joshi and Anesthetists Dr A K Singh and Dr Pankaj Sharma. Apart from these doctors one pharmacist is also deployed on the President’s duty. Two ambulances of the hospital would be part of President’s fleet.
The duty of two Physicians from the hospital is bound to affect the patients as the hospital would be left with only three physicians to cater the huge patient load. The medicine department is already facing shortage of doctors as one Associate Professor Dr Vikram Singh and two assistant Professors, Dr Nidhi Uniyal and Dr Sanjay Kumar Varun have left the service in recent times.
To add to the woes of patients and the hospital administration Senior Physician Dr K B Joshi is on Kedarnath duty while another Physician Dr Mukesh Sundariyal is on leave as he is indisposed. It leaves the hospital with only three Physicians to cater to the huge patient load. “The hospital is visited by large number of patients from different parts of the state and neighboring districts of Uttar Pradesh. The prevalence of seasonal diseases is more during this time of year due to which the patient load on Physicians increases. The administration should have spared the Physicians of this hospital in public interest,’’ said one of a staff members.
The Medical Superintendent (MS) of the hospital, Dr K K Tamta accepted that the shortage of doctors would affect the functioning of the hospital but added that the hospital administration would manage with available work force.