Sambalpur: The district headquarters hospital (DHH) is the mainstay of the poor and marginal people in the district. More than 11 lakhs people depend on it for redressal of their medical ailments. But the DHH is unable to cater to their needs due to lack of doctors in many of its primary departments and an abysmally poor bed strength in its indoor department.
Talking to Orissa POST, Dr Kodanda Rao, chief district medical officer (CDMO) said Friday that important departments like Orthopedic, TB and chest, skin and VD, radiology, surgery and anesthesia are running virtually headless. Thirty-eight posts of various doctors lying vacant here out of a sanctioned strength of 67. The vacancy works out to almost 40 per cent.
The worst part is that we have only four doctors available in the leave transfer & relief measure (LTRM) whereas in an ideal scenario, it should be 27. So there is a shortage of 23 doctors, the deficit is 85 per cent here. Imagine our position when any doctor goes on leave, he rued.
He said there are 268 patients admitted and treated in the indoor department against a sanctioned strength of 149. So the overburden is about 80 per cent here and we are successful in handling it. None appreciates us for it. The population of Sambalpur town used to be about 35,000 when this hospital was established. The present population is more than 4 lakhs, so it is difficult to handle the increased load with the same strengths of beds and doctors.
In this context, OP talked to UTSARG, a front running voluntary organisation in health sector and a known name in popularising voluntary blood donation in the district. Its spokesperson Sanjib Mishra opined that the installed strength of DHH should be increased to 500 beds to cater to the present demand of Sambalpur district. The present government is keen to provide infrastructure support as and where it is needed.
Dr Rao further explained that the patient load on the DHH and VIMSAR is almost the same. The average turnouts at the DHH is about 500 per day whereas it was almost the same figure at VIMSAR too. Of late the size of the turnouts at VIMSAR has increased substantially due to some improvement in situation there after the recent strike. But there is a vast difference in patient-doctor ratio if you compare both the hospitals.
How could we expect same standard services from this government hospital when it is grossly lacking it human resources (man power). The existing strength of para-medical staff in the hospital is nothing better. It is running at about 60 per cent of its sanctioned strength, working out to a shortfall of 40 per cent. PNN