Odisha: Services at District Hospitals hampered due to staff shortage

Jagatsinghpur: The lack of doctors and staff at any district government hospital has taken a toll on the citizens. Patients are forced to wait in long queues in the government hospitals and health centres for treatment. 

The drastic services provided by the hospitals and centres have left patients with no choice but to get treatment from private hospitals. A shortage of doctors and medical staff has led to an increase in footfall in hospitals and health centres today. As a result, the rest of the doctors are struggling to handle the situation properly.

It has been revealed that the District Headquarters Hospital (DHH) is functioning with only 22 employees which are only one-third of the total strength needed to run the hospital smoothly. There have been reports of patients waiting for many hours only to get a few hours of free services from the hospital. Due to a lack of lab technicians and a pathologist at the hospital, patients are forced to visit other hospitals.

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On the other hand, Community Health Centres (CHC) and Primary Health Centres (PHC) are facing a shortage of medical employees with 89 vacant posts including pediatric, gynaecologist and medicine specialists.

In a recent visit to the Redhua CHC, the CHC superintendent issued a notice of dereliction of duty against three doctors at the centre for not performing their duties properly and irregularly. As the centre only has three doctors, the AYUSH doctors also assist with patient care.

It can be seen that most of the district hospitals are running without a proper radiologist or no radiologist at all which creates problems among the patients as they are forced to get the tests done privately.

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In response to the claims of the patients that they are not getting any free healthcare from the government, Chief District Medical Officer Khetrabasi Dash told TNIE, "There is a shortage of lab technicians, radiologists and doctors at the DHH. We have informed our higher-ups about the situation and needful steps will be taken."