GOALPARA, Sept 1 - The 200-bed Goalpara Civil Hospital, which has been playing a key role in rendering better quality health care to the local people as well as people from outside the district, has of late witnessed a marked deterioration in the standards of services due to the shortage of medical employees, including paramedics and other supporting staff at various levels.
Moreover, absence of specialists like radiologist, dermatologist and orthopaedic surgeon has hampered the health care services in the hospital.
On condition of anonymity, a doctor lamented on the quality of services he is providing in the OPD saying that he is barely giving less than a minute to every patient because there is a huge rush of patients in the hospital.
Besides having only one paediatrician, the hospital runs with only one pathologist whose clinical advice is of utmost importance. He also looks after the blood bank and has to perform his duty as a medicine specialist too.
Besides, an anaesthesiologist is deputed to the hospital from Ambari Model Hospital for three days a week and there are a total of 51 ANMs and 32 GNMs on the rolls despite the requirement of 75 to 100 nursing employees to look after patients as per the Indian Public Health Standards.
A hospital source said that due to the frequent rush of patients, the hospital employees are overstretched.
The source also pointed out that the district authorities should launch a major crackdown on the middlemen swarming the medical facility, who influence gullible poor patients and lure them to private nursing homes and laboratories from the government medical facility.
