Post News Network
Angul, May 20: Healthcare services in the district headquarters hospital (DHH) here is in a complete mess as even pregnant women requiring surgery are being turned away by the hospital authorities. This is happening because the only anesthetist of the hospital, Dr Shobhagini Parida, is on a month-long leave since April 21, hospital authorities said.
However, her leave has completely halted all surgical operations at the DHH. Even as the district collector had earlier directed chief district medical officer (CDMO) to reimburse operation costs of patients from the district Red-Cross fund, pregnant women and other patients are forced to visit private nursing homes where they have to spend exorbitant fees for treatment.
The continuing mess has triggered wide-spread resentment among patients as well as their attendants visiting the hospital.
The hospital has two operation theatres (OT) where nearly 100 operations are conducted in each of the OTs per month. The operation theatres are mostly used for conducting caesarean section on pregnant women. However, after Parida went on leave, doctors stopped performing surgeries.
The patients of the district had faced a similar situation when the then anesthetist was transferred in November 2013. The post remained vacant over a long period before Parida joined. The patients had to depend on private nursing homes for operations. Even many pregnant women died of labour pain as they couldn’t avail timely surgeries, sparking protests by several civil society groups and political parties. They staged demonstrations over the deaths, forcing the former collector to step in to resolve the issue.
The former collector then called a joint meeting of Rogi Kalyan Samiti, district administration and district health officials. In the meeting January 18, 2014, it was decided that any pregnant woman unable to meet the operation cost can visit private nursing homes for which they will be reimbursed from the district Red-Cross fund.
Patients unable to pay operation costs were required to submit applications to concerned doctors. After signing the applications, the doctors were required to forward them to the additional district medical officer (ADMO), who in turn was required to sign and resend them to the CDMO. Pregnant women were then required to carry the letters signed by both the senior medical officers to the nursing homes following which their treatment costs were to be borne from the district Red-Cross fund.
The district administration had also signed a contract with a private nursing home for which it was paid Rs 10,500 per operation. The nursing home was providing free treatment to pregnant women whenever the anesthetist of the district headquarters hospital went on leave.
However, later, it stopped providing free treatment after the district administration failed to clear arrears of Rs 72,500.
Now when the anesthetist is on leave, the nursing home has refused free treatment to pregnant women until its dues are not cleared by the district administration while the doctors are forcing patients to go to nursing homes where they are being asked to pay `15,000-20,000 per surgery
When contacted CDMO, Dr Bidyadhar Sahoo, blamed the ADMO for the mess but assured to look into the matter.
