Though the Rourkela Government Hospital (RGH), which caters to the healthcare needs of above 12 lakh population, has been given administrative elevation at par with the Capital Hospital in Bhubaneswar, it continues to struggle with whopping vacancies of doctors and para-medical staff.
The RGH caters to the medical needs of Rourkela, Panposh and Bonai sub-divisions and part of Sundargarh sub-division. Besides, poor patients of bordering areas of Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand also visit the hospital.
In line with the Capital Hospital, the Health and Family Welfare Department through a notification in 2017 had upgraded the post of Chief Medical Officer (CMO) of RGH to Director who would be assisted by a Superintendent in the rank of Level-1 Additional Director and a Deputy Superintendent.
But nothing much has changed so far, thanks to manpower shortage.
Sources said the hospital currently has 33 regular doctors against sanctioned posts of 73, while eight doctors have been hired with fat monthly pay funded from the District Mineral Foundation (DMF). Surprisingly, while many departments are running with no doctors, some are running with just one doctor each.
Though the trauma care center is an important unit, only six doctors are available whereas minimum 11 doctors are required.
The worst condition is in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) and the Sick Newborn Care Unit (SNCU) which are running without doctors though the sanctioned posts in them are five and four respectively. Similarly, the departments like ENT, TB, Orthopedic, Cardiology, Skin and Anesthesia are running without doctors.
It would be better not to speak about the departments like Drugs De-addiction Center and Antiretroviral Therapy (ART) Centre. Against the requirement of 150 staff nurses, the RGH now is managed with 61. Besides, in Group D, while 11 staff are there out of 26, it is one out of six in Laboratory Technician post and one out of five in case of clerical post.
A couple of years ago, the 100 bedded new Maternal and Child Health (MCH) unit was inaugurated by the CM but so far it has not provided the indoor facilities to the patients due to shortage of doctors and other paramedical staff. It may be noted here that during the visit of the then State
Health Minister Atanu Sabyasachi Nayak to Rourkela in August 2015, he had promised that the RGH was given adequate attention to fill up vacant posts of doctors. Again, in September 2017 the then Health Minister Pratap Jena during his visit to the RGH repeated the same words but the vacancy problem lies unresolved.
Besides doctor shortage, the other major problem relates to the bed strength, not getting enhanced.