The Manav Adihikar Surakshya Manch (MASM) will hold a dharna in front of the MKCG Medical College and Hospital from Gandhi Jayanti on October 2 pressing for various demands.
A MASM delegation led by its convener advocate Abani Kumar Gaya submitted a memorandum to the Brahmapur Sub-Collector here on Monday demanding appointments against all vacant posts of doctors and technicians in the MKCG. Due to dearth of doctors in almost all the departments of MKCG, patients are not only deprived of getting proper healthcare, but also number of deaths of patients, including new born infants,
has increased substantially, Gaya lamented.
Notably, there are several departments such as Cardiology, Endocrinology, Nephrology, Neurology, Neurosurgery, Cardiothoracic Surgery, Plastic Surgery, Paediatric, Surgery, Medicine, and Transfusion units which do not have required number of doctors since long. Why the Government is silent on the matter and taking no action to fill up the vacancies for last several years causing serious inconvenience to patients of this region, Gaya questioned. The poor and rural patients who do not have resources are forced to die due to lack of proper treatment and infrastructure, and poor patients are also being exploited by the private nursing homes taking advantage of poor healthcare system, he alleged.
On the one hand, the Government is collecting user’s fee from the patients worth lakhs of rupees every day, while on the other it is neglecting the healthcare system and not filling the posts of doctors for years causing inconvenience to the patients, he added. Condemning the poor healthcare system, Gaya alleged that the State Government is knowingly encouraging privatisation of healthcare system in the State for its vested interests, thereby affecting the fundamental right to health. He also sought the intervention of the Sub-Collector into the alleged misappropriation of hospital users’ fee.
Other demands include not to pay the salary of the security staff out of the users’ fee, sanction of ultramodern health care equipment like ECG Machine, Blood Pressure machine, pulse ox meter,
oxygen cylinder, masks, air conditioning of the OPD room, provision of all required
instruments in the OT, ICU for Paediatric ward, operationlisation of Trauma Center,
checking patients’ diversion from MKCG to private nursing homes and clinics and special treatment unit/ward for
treatment of senior citizens, among others.