Shimla: DDU hospital reels under shortage of anesthetists, surgeries on hold

"We have apprised the government of the situation and have been assured that anaesthetists will be posted here shortly," said Dr Lokinder Sharma of the hospital. As per a recent media report by The Tribune, the hospital had four anaesthetists, but they all left about a month ago for their senior residency. The hospital, which is one of three zonal hospitals (the others being in Dharamsala and Mandi), has been without an anesthesiologist for about a month.

The hospital attends roughly 700-800 patients every day, and nearly 15-20 surgeries are usually performed every week (mainly general and orthopaedic). There has been no interim plan in place to keep the operating rooms open until new doctors are assigned. "The situation at the hospital is bad. Apart from the absence of anaesthetists, there's no doctor of surgery and most departments have only one doctor each," said a DDU hospital doctor, requesting anonymity.

While the patients had to bear a lot of inconveniences, the situation for the doctors is not much different. the doctor explained that they have to go to the emergency room, handle the wards, and handle medico-legal situations as well. The hospital's workload is increased by frequent VIP mobility and attending medical-legal situations. "It leads to doctors' absenteeism from the OPDs, causing inconvenience to patients coming from distant places," the doctor said.

"The hospital was upgraded to a zonal hospital but the staff have not been increased. Our staff should be at par with zonal hospitals of Mandi and Dharamsala," said Dr Sharma.