State of hospitals: At Chandigarh's GMCH Emergency, patient footfall 3-time the bed count

Naina Mishra

Chandigarh, June 17

At the Emergency block of the Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH), Sector 32, patients lay on the trolleys lined up in open hall with drips hanging from a hook on a pillar. In the absence of adequate beds for patients, doctors decide which patient needs medical supervision on bed and which one can be stabilised on trolley.

The Emergency block, which has a daily footfall of over 140 patients, has only 45 beds. Hence, trolleys are placed in the open hall to cater to the rush. The patient first goes to the Emergency medical officer’s room on the ground floor where a card is made and then patient is sent to the designated hall as per the medical requirement.

Bed-like trolleys on the cards: Director

Till the time the new building is constructed, we have proceeded with the purchase of around 100 trolleys that look like beds. This way, at least the patient will be in a comfortable state during the treatment. —Dr Jasbinder Kaur, Director, GMCH-32

There are five halls of Emergency and each hall has seven health workers, including from a faculty to a junior resident. Sometimes, each doctor has to handle 50 patients in a day during his gruelling shift.

“The workload is unbearable sometimes. We don’t have time for lunch as managing the patient rush is a difficult task. Sometimes we run out of basic medicines in the Emergency ward and ask patients to get it from outside,” said a doctor posted at the medicine emergency.

Dilsher Singh, who was attending to his wife in the Emergency hall, said, “She is being treated in the hall and being given only drips.”

Some respite is expected to be seen after the much-awaited project worth Rs 52 crore – Trauma Centre – with 200 beds will be constructed by the next year. The existing building was dismantled to make space for the new block and since then, the Emergency ward is being run from Block A.

A man in 70s with swollen neck was lying on a stretcher with unease. His kin shared, “The arrangement is very uncomfortable for the patient, but we are managing it as the treatment is suitable.”

More manpower okayed

The Sector 32 hospital has recently got the approval for 35 junior residents, six faculty and a junior resident and 16 technicians.

Besides, 185 posts of nursing officer in the hospital will be advertised. This will increase the working hands and reduce the burden on the doctors.

New Emergency block by next year

The new Emergency wing, which will be constructed by the next year, will ease the patient rush at the GMCH-32. The Emergency block will see addition of 259 beds to the hospital having clinical labs, X-ray, CT scan, MRI, chemist shop, two emergency operation theatres and a minor operation theatre, post-operative wards, an isolation ward and parking facilities in the twin basement. It will also have provision for central air-conditioning, firefighting and fire sensing. The building will have parking facilities for 59 cars and 144 two-wheelers.