The emergency arising due to leakage of Chlorine gas from the Jal Sansthan premises located at Rajpur Road on late Thursday night exposed the pathetic condition of Government health services in the State Capital. After the mishap, some of the affected people were rushed to the associated hospital of Government Doon Medical College (GDMC) but the doctors posted in the emergency wing advised them to go to some other hospital (read private hospital).
It is alleged that the doctors told the harried relatives of the patients of the gas leakage that the hospital do not have oxygen. The gas leakage victims were then transported to the private hospitals where they were treated and fortunately no loss of life occurred.
The whole episode however exposed apathetic attitude of the employees, lack of emergency medical officers and shortage of facilities in the hospital which is the biggest health centre in the State.
An inquiry by this correspondent revealed that the hospital has centralised distribution system of oxygen in which the supply of oxygen is done with the help of a point on the bed. The hospital has seven beds in emergency with oxygen supply and life support system in place.
The doctors on duty in the emergency wing allegedly told the patients of gas tragedy that they lack beds with oxygen points. With a little effort the doctors could have easily admitted the patients in wards where most of the beds have supply of oxygen. Further the special dengue ward with all the facilities has ten beds and it was empty at that time. It is clear that the doctors on duty shirked their responsibility and guided the patients of Chlorine gas tragedy to the private hospitals.
After preliminary investigation, the Medical Superintendent (MS) of the hospital, Dr KK Tamta has sought written explanation from the Emergency Medical Officer (EMO) on duty, Dr H S Bhatia, staff nurse and the pharmacist on duty at that time.
It is worth mentioning here that the emergency wing of the associated hospital of GDMC suffers from acute shortage of EMOs. The hospital has five sanctioned posts of EMO while the medical college has four posts of Causality Medical Officer (CMO). Out of these total nine posts the hospital has only two EMOs.
On late night of Thursday a Chlorine gas cylinder placed in the water works campus of Jal Sansthan at Rajpur road started leaking following a blast. The chlorine gas immediately caused suffocation and burning sensation in the eyes of some people in immediate vicinity. A total of ten persons including three children were admitted in two private hospitals of the city and most of the affected persons were sent home after initial treatment. On Friday seven admitted patients were released from the hospital but three children were still undergoing treatment in the Mahant Indiresh hospital.
The revelations about the state of affairs in the biggest government hospital in Uttarakhand have elicited all the more concern, coming at a time when the deaths of scores of children in a Government medical college hospital at Gorakhpur in neighbouring Uttar Pradesh are being blamed at unavailability of oxygen.