The issue of shortage of beds at the biggest State-owned medical college and hospital – Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) - is yet to get resolved. Even after the instructions of senior officials to address the problem, the hospital authorities stated that adequate time is required to deal with the matter.
Senior officials claimed that they have to abide by the rules and regulation of Medical Council of India (MCI) besides taking the consent of all the Head of the Departments (HODs) on the matter.
Acting Director, RIMS, Dr. RK Srivastava on Wednesday said that attempts are being made to resolve the issue. He further stated that though the MCI’s norms underline that in accordance to the total number of beds in the medical college, recruitment of teachers must be done but attempts are being made to settle this issue through creation of a separate wards that will have sufficient number of beds for the patients and where the MCI rules will not be directly applicable.
“If all goes well, a separate ward will be made where beds will be available in sufficient number. According to the plan, if any patients did not get bed due unavoidable circumstances, they will be temporarily kept inside the special unit and later on will be shifted to the respective ward where he/she is undergoing treatment. We too want that whosoever comes here is treated with utmost dignity,” said Srivastava.
Meanwhile, when enquired about the timeline, as on when the plan is likely to get executed by the hospital administrative and personnel wing, Srivastava further added, “We are brainstorming on this and the proposal is at the nascent stage. Only after discussing it with Principal Secretary and getting approval of all HODs, we will be able to finalize this,” Srivastava said.
Notably, RIMS does not have the issue of infrastructure (building) that can pose hurdle in developing a separate unit for patients’ undergoing treatment on floor in the absence of beds. “Several things need to be considered before finalizing anything. We cannot impose our decision on the HODs. Also, if alternate arrangement will be taken into consideration by putting beds in the corridors, it will only create chaos,” Srivastava added.
At present, Neurosurgery ward has maximum number of patients undergoing treatment on floor; the condition of Medicine ward is similar to that of Neurosurgery unit. As per the reports, the Medicine ward has the provision of merely 50 beds but here too the patients’ flow is quite high who undergoes treatment on floor.
According to the records, Neurosurgery ward has the provision of 110 beds, however anytime the patients’ flow here is over 500. The government owned hospital and college has the facility of around 1200 beds but the number of patients at any given time at RIMS is beyond 1500.