No general duty medical officers at Rohtak Civil Hospital
On an average, nearly 2,000 patients visit the Civil Hospital at Rohtak every day. To cater to the heavy rush of patients, the hospital requires at least six general duty medical officers (GDMOs) for round-the-clock emergency duties. However, there is not even a single GDMO at the Civil Hospital, due to which the patient care is suffering.
Due to the absence of GDMOs, specialist doctors have to be deployed on emergency as well as postmortem duties, which reduces and restricts their availability in the OPDs. Also, there is no radiologist at the hospital after the previous incumbent was shifted elsewhere after promotion.
As per official sources, 13 posts of medical officers are vacant at the hospital as of now.
Dr Pushpender Kumar, Senior Medical Officer (SMO)-cum-Medical Superintendent incharge, said the authorities concerned had been apprised of the requirement of GDMOs and a radiologist. "We have to put specialist doctors on emergency duties as we have no other option. The situation will ease when we get at least six GDMOs," he maintained.
Space crunch is another major issue at the hospital; the space for parking of vehicles on the premises is not enough. The hospital is located in the heart of old Rohtak town, which is the most congested area of the city. Hence, reaching the hospital is also an uphill task, especially in case of medical emergencies.
The Medical Superintendent also conceded that the paucity of space creates much inconvenience to the visitors, adding that the proposals to set up a cath lab and MRI equipment at the hospital had been hanging fire due to the lack of space on the hospital premises.
"A proposal to shift the hospital to a more spacious location has been sent to the authorities concerned," he stated. Nonetheless, some doctors and other staff members serving at the hospital maintain that the space concern can be addressed by going in for vertical expansion of the hospital.
"Shifting of the hospital to some far-off location will cause inconvenience to patients. Vertical expansion can be carried out to create more space for parking, OPDs and other facilities within the same premises," said a doctor requesting not to be named.
