The pandemic curve may be flattening gradually, but the staff of BMC-run hospitals are still a troubled lot – thanks to the extra hours of duty. The jumbo care centres are receiving fewer patients, but doctors and healthcare staff from civic hospitals are being outsourced for the jumbo centres and Seven Hills Hospital. As a result, BMC hospitals are facing severe staff crunch as there is a rise in non-Covid patients.
Resident doctors have urged their deans to call back the staff sent to jumbo care centres. Since the pandemic started, the footfall of non-Covid patients had reduced. Over 100 resident doctors from BMC hospitals were posted on COVID duties at the jumbo centres and Seven Hills hospital. Almost 72 per cent of beds are vacant at the jumbo centres but many resident doctors from KEM, BYL Nair, RN Cooper and Sion hospital are still posted there. “With the relaxation of the lockdown, we are getting many serious patients who couldn't reach hospitals earlier. But due to the shortage of staff, we aren’t able to pay timely treatment,” said Dr Arun Ghule, president of KEM MARD.
The KEM hospital, the biggest civic-run hospital records 7,000 out-patient departments (OPD) patients daily. Almost 50 of their resident doctors are stationed at NESCO Jumbo centre, Goregaon and Seven Hills Hospital, Marol. Similarly, the Sion hospital which receives around 3,000 daily OPD patients have stationed almost 100 of their resident doctors at various jumbo centres.
Many opine that resident doctors are ‘unnecessarily’ stationed there.
The resident doctors of Seth GS Medical College and KEM hospital have written a letter to the Directorate of Medical Education and Research (DMER) requesting them to release the resident doctors from the jumbo facilities so they can go to their respective hospitals and handle the non-Covid patients.
The letter reads: “We are working on COVID-19 duties at various outside hospitals as per instructions since the start of the pandemic. We worked without any complaints in few of the pandemic, but now the number of patients at outside hospitals has reduced to a locally manageable level. The workload at KEM Hospital has increased more than pre-pandemic situation. We are not able to perform our basic educational activities, which is the main purpose of our PG course. We request you to kindly help and relieve us from outside hospital duties as soon as possible. If any time a pandemic situation worsens we will again feel proud to work with your instructions.”
