Odisha: Services at District Hospitals hampered due to staff shortage

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."