Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): There is acute crisis of doctors, as nearly 90 per cent of specialists are missing, and equipment is either out of order or newly purchased yet unusable in hospitals under the Gas Relief and Rehabilitation department.
These findings emerge from a quarterly report of the Supreme Court’s monitoring committee, submitted to the High Court’s principal bench in Jabalpur.
Almost no department is functioning at the super-specialty Kamala Nehru Hospital for Gas Relief. Neurologists have left, dialysis services have stopped as trained staff are gone, and no surgeries are taking place due to the absence of an anaesthesiologist. The lone pathologist in the pathology department is close to retirement.
In Master Lal Singh Hospital, 8 specialist/doctors’ posts of Class-I and 6 Class-II medical officer posts are sanctioned. Against this, only one gynaecologist and one paediatrician are posted, leaving 6 specialist posts vacant.
At Indira Gandhi Mahila Evam Balya Chikitsalaya, 14 specialist posts (Class-I) are sanctioned but only 5 specialists are posted. Posts of anaesthetist, radiologist, medical specialist, surgical specialist and blood bank officer remain vacant. Out of 42 sanctioned Class-II medical officer posts, 26 are filled — 11 regular and 15 contractual.
In Rasool Ahmed Siddiqi Pulmonary Medicine Centre, several essential medical machines were purchased but have never been used and have now become dysfunctional due to absence of pulmonology specialists. Despite posts being sanctioned year after year, no recruitment steps, including issuing advertisements through MPPSC, were taken.
