Baripada: Even as a long standing demand of the people of Mayurbhanj district was fulfilled with the establishment of Pandit Raghunath Murmu (PRM) Medical College and Hospital here at Rangamatia, health care services were severely hit due to management flaws.
According to reports, as many as 2, 63,460 patients had visited 19 OPDs of various departments of the hospital between May 2017 and February 11, 2018. Nearly 60,000 patients had visited the medicine department outdoor only. A study revealed that more than 250 patients thronged the hospital every day of which many were from neighbouring states like Jharkhand and West Bengal.
As the health service commenced after getting clearance from a team of Medical Council of India (MCI), there was a steep rise in the number of patients who expect superior quality health care facilities. However, many of them often get disappointed with the service offered at the hospital, it was learnt.
For example, there are only eight doctors in the medicine ward of the hospital and they find it difficult to offer consultancy services to over 250 patients a day. Many patients return home after waiting in queue for hours, said local social activist Abhisman Patnaik. With the number of patients growing by the day, the medicine department needs at least two more OPDs to meet the need of the patients, Patnaik added.
When contacted, medical college superintendent Dr Narendranath Soren said there are provisions for two outdoors (male and female) in the department. However, the authorities could open just one outdoor. The second OPD couldn’t be opened as the head of the department functions from Cuttack, Sored clarified. He assured that measures are being taken to open one more ward soon.
On the other hand, a Supreme Court committee granted permission to the authorities to enroll students for 100 seats in two academic sessions – 2017-18 and 2018-19. A special team of Union health ministry would make a visit to the hospital any time soon and it would bar the authorities from further enrolment after 2018-19 sessions if the infrastructure of the medical college is found inadequate, a report said. PNN
