A situation of chaos prevails in the associated hospital of the Doon Medical College (DMC) – erstwhile Doon hospital - as the new sitting arrangement of doctors, staff and OPD management is proving problematic for the patients visiting the biggest hospital of the State. To add to the woes of patients, the hospital administration has not installed sign boards mentioning place and days of OPDs inside the hospital premises.
The new arrangement was imposed in the hospital from February 11 and the data shows that the number of patients visiting the OPD of the hospital has reduced progressively from then onwards. In the associated hospital of Medical college the new system of OPD is now being run as per the norms of a medical college. The hospital administration has divided the doctors in units.
In the bigger branches like Surgery and Medicine three units each are made. Under this system one unit serves in OPD on fixed days of week and on other days they serve in IPD or have operations. In the erstwhile Doon hospital the doctors used to see the patients daily and their rooms were also fixed. Under the new pattern the OPD I or II are mentioned outside the rooms but names of the doctors are not mentioned.
Interestingly, even the hospital staff and the registration counter executive appear confused when asked about doctors present in OPD. One of a staff member of the hospital said that the sign boards mentioning place and names of the doctors on Duty should be placed at different parts of the hospital to remove this confusion.
“You can well understand the position of the patients and many of them prefer to return when they realize that the doctor they intend to visit would not be available that day,’’ he informed. The OPD figures are showing the decline of patients; on February 11, 1437 patients visited the OPDs of hospital while on February 12 and 13 the figure was 958 and 1028 respectively. On Monday however the figure managed to touch 2000 which used to be a normal figure till last month.
When contacted the Medical Superintendent (MS) of DMC hospital, Dr K K Tamta accepted that there is some confusion but added that the situation would be brought under control soon. He termed the problems as teething ones and said that the process of recruitment of doctors is still going on and once that gets completed the signboards mentioning the names of doctors and their units would be displayed.
The hospital was recently brought under the Doon Medical College (DMC) as the Medical Council of India’s (MCI) rules for granting recognition for a medical college mandates that a fully operational hospital should be part of the college. A spate of construction activity is also going on inside the premises due to which many portions of the hospital are not used, leaving it cramping for space. Though a new OPD building is coming up near the hospital but it would take at least one year to get completed.