M A I N   N E W S

50 pc occupancy in govt hospitals
Varinder Walia
Tribune News Service

Amritsar, August 11
Many wards of government hospitals have witnessed fall of about 50 per cent in bed occupancy, mainly due to the introduction of user charges since May 1, 1999, leading to mushrooming of private nursing homes.

Broken beds and stinking mattresses in most of the empty wards in the prestigious Guru Nanak Dev Hospital being run by the Government Medical College here could be a glaring example of the apathy of the state Health Department. Guru Nanak Dev Hospital, spread over 350 acres, was one of the premier health institutions where patients from Afghanistan, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan and Jammu and Kashmir used to come for treatment. Now local patients, who can afford medicare prefer to get themselves treated in private nursing homes.

Though Dr H.S. Gill, Medical Superintendent, has claimed the decline in bed occupancy in government hospitals was not more than 25 per cent the fact is that there was more than 50 per cent fall of patients in many wards of prestigious government hospitals during a casual visit by the TNS team.

The upper classes had already stopped going to government hospitals long ago as they would prefer to admit themselves in private hospitals. However, with the hike in charges of different categories, including admission fee etc, the middle class has stopped using the government hospitals. Middlemen of government doctors have spread all over to lure patients to get themselves in private hospitals. The middlemen who have been working on commission basis would suggest to patients, coming to government hospitals to get treatment in private nursing homes at “cheaper” rates. Despite the ban, many doctors have opened private nursing homes.

Though many nursing homes have employed untrained staff and engaged specialists on contract basis, yet many private hospitals have better equipment and machinery than the government hospitals. The officials said that with the advent of telemedicine, nuclear medicine, non-invasive techniques and laproscopic surgery techniques, the patients’ first priority is private hospitals where these are available easily. In case the government hospitals acquire the latest techniques it takes months to get machines repaired in case any snag develops. The CT Scan in the government hospital took more than eight months for repair while a private doctor can get it done immediately.

The weaker section and government servants visit the government hospitals for obvious reasons.

A visit to the operating theatre, which is touted as the best in Asia, presents a pathetic picture. The number of operations, which was about 250 a week, before the charges were imposed, has now come down to 100. The doctors concerned said no medicine was provided for the operation by government for the last so many years. The attendants of the patients have to get even cotton from their own pocket. The department has failed to provide any latest machinery for the past two decades.

Huge investment is not being put to use properly in the kitchen of the hospital as the patients or their attendants prefer to get food from outside dhabas. On an average only 60 patients get free food. Subsequently, the budget of the kitchen has been reduced from Rs 8 lakh to a meagre Rs 2 lakh. Earlier, food for more than 350 patients used to be cooked in the kitchen when rates of food were extremely genuine.

However, there has been drastic fall of patients in the TB ward besides children’s ward and surgery ward. During a visit to the super-speciality urology ward almost all beds were found vacant. Similarly, more than 70 per cent beds in the children’s were empty. After the premature retirement of Dr Ashok Uppal, Head of the Neurology Department, the department witnessed drastic decrease in the number of patients. There is no doctor posted there at present. The Urology Department has only one assistant professor who got himself transferred from Patiala. Two posts of professors were shifted to Patiala for reasons best known to the authorities concerned.

However, the department has to pay huge salaries to the staff, including sweepers, peons and nurses though there are hardly any patients admitted in the ward. In surgical ward number three more than 50 per cent beds were found vacant. The family wards which used to be overflowing before the introduction of medical charges have also witnessed drastic decline in the number of patients.

The Medical Education and Research Minister who visited the hospital in connection with the inauguration of a computer centre did not visit the wards of the hospital which speaks volumes about the apathy of all concerned.

The medical students who have been doing postgraduation are at great loss as they cannot get proper training due to steep fall in the number of patients in the hospitals.

An insider commented that most of the government doctors who have opened private nursing homes are virtually bent upon closing down the government hospitals.