Space shortage, lack of facilities at Regional Hospital irk Solan residents

Paucity of space at decades old Regional Hospital in Solan troubles at least 1,800 patients who visit the Outdoor Patient Department (OPD) every day. When a person enters the hospital, he/she feels that the old hospital building built ages ago is unsafe for patients. Patients and their attendants suffocate as there is no provision of ventilation in the hospital building. There is barely any space left to walk as patients queue up in narrow corridors outside small unventilated rooms of doctors.

Though housing quarters of doctors were demolished to build new wards at the hospital, it failed to accommodate patients rush. The hospital caters to residents from Solan as well as nearby areas of neighbouring Sirmaur district.

As per Indian Public Health Standards, the seating arrangement is supposed to be as per the patient load at any hospital. One can see patients jostling for space while standing in queues in narrow corridors of the hospital.

Shortage of space has also stalled the implementation of key Central health programmes at the hospital. Setting up of an early intervention centre for detection of deformities and deficiencies to improve the survival rate has also been delayed at the Solan hospital.

“Staff shortage has become a perennial issue. At least five medical officers are less in number than the sanctioned strength. Though there are adequate nurses, absence of pharmacy officers hits the hospital working. Among drivers and class IV staff, 27 of 36 sanctioned posts are vacant for the past many months,” said Medical Superintendent, Dr Sandeep Jain.

Dr Jain is the only radiologist in the district. He has an arduous task of managing the administrative work of the hospital, besides catering to the daily patient influx.

Located on a curve along a busy road, the hospital also faces parking issues. Patients arriving at the emergency particularly suffer as do their counterparts who visit hospital for treatment every day.

A private lab authorised by the state government provides services to the hospital. The hospital’s own lab collects samples from patients only till 1.30 pm as its staff spend the other half of the day in testing samples.

Efforts to upgrade hospital facilities are stalled by technical issues. Undue delay to buy a phaco machine for conducting eye operations proves this fact. An amount of Rs 43 lakh was sanctioned years ago by the deputy commissioner for purchasing the machine. But, the hospital authorities have yet to purchase it. Considerable time was spent for securing the requisite permission to purchase the machine. Later, only a single bidder came forward to provide machine, but the task could not be accomplished forcing patients to turn towards private eye clinics.

A sum of Rs 10 crore was made available to the hospital years ago to set up a mother-and-child healthcare (MCH) facility by the Union Government. However, the centre did not come up due to the paucity of space in the old hospital. Now, these funds are being utilised for constructing new hospital building.

The poor state of affairs at the hospital were amply reflected today when surgery of three patients, including a 70-year-old hernia patient, was cancelled at the eleventh hour on the plea of an emergency C-section operation of another patient. The hapless patient, who is covered under the Ayushman Bharat Yojana, spent Rs 30,000 on operation by a private surgeon.

The hospital also does not have generator operators. Whenever there is a power outage, essential services like performing surgery, giving prescriptions and conducting diagnostic tests come to a standstill. The need for a new hospital has been felt in the city for the past many years, but the successive governments failed to fulfil it. More than three years after former Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur laid the foundation stone of a new multi-specialty hospital at Kather bypass, its construction work is progressing by fits and starts owing to paucity of funds.

Earlier, around two decades ago a proposal to shift hospital to Kather bypass was thwarted after the chemist lobby resisted the move. It’s an irony that Solan has given three health and family welfare ministers, including the present incumbent, during the past 12 years, but city’s Regional Hospital faces many shortcomings.