Health Dept pulls up Patna Medical college authorities, doctors over discrepancies in Covid-19 duties

Taking cognizance of the same, the Additional Secretary of Health, Kaushal Kishore issued a letter to the PMCH Principal and the Superintendent on August 18, where he mentioned the issue of missing doctors and also indicated some of the lapses that he found in the functioning of the hospital. Instructions were given to the facility to work on the drawbacks immediately and to enhance their quality of services.

The letter mentioned the absence of certain faculty members from their assigned duties. It further stated that the roster duty chart of doctors and nurses was not put up for display and often the name mentioned in the duty chart is different than the names mentioned in the attendance sheet. The letter further highlighted that on being enquired regarding the issue where an attendant complained that he had to buy insulin from the market for his patient, the superintendent could not give a proper explanation.

Hence, Kishore instructed the administration to maintain the roster chart sincerely, and as far as the absence of the faculty members is concerned, he instructed the principal to immediately conduct a proper review of the matter and take necessary steps.

Apart from the absence of the faculty members, issues with medical equipment like portable x-ray and ultrasound machines for COVID patients and arterial blood gas analyzers in ICU were also marked.

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For instance, the hospital was turned into a dedicated COVID facility last month with 100 beds for the COVID ward.

Commenting on this issue of unavailability of faculty members, the superintendent of the hospital stated that "Assistant professors have now been deputed in each shift and instructions have been passed on to doctors not to leave their work station till their reliever comes."

Meanwhile, PMCH superintendent, Dr. Bimal Karak told HT that they have already started making improvements following the instruction of the Additional Health Secretary.

"We have addressed all concerns which our principal secretary had pointed out during his inspection," he stated.

"We have made available some drugs for co-morbidity, as prescribed in our SOP (standard operating procedure) for Covid-19 patients, and displayed the list where the attendants sit. We are also making the "May I Help You" booth functional 24x7. We have also requisitioned services of 50 additional ward boys on a contract basis to which the principal secretary has agreed, " Karak added.