GUWAHATI, Aug 20 � One of the highly regarded departments of Gauhati Medical College Hospital, and a lifeline to the economically weak, is on the cross roads. After much-needed improvements in recent years, the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery now requires additional support from the State Health Department if it has to serve more people needing complex medical procedures.
�It is among the departments which have made complicated surgeries affordable in the region, and benefited a cross section of people, thanks to Government initiatives. But it now needs more interventions,� said a senior doctor attached to the department.
To their credit, doctors of the department have successfully performed open heart surgeries. Prior to the open heart surgery programme, both doctors and nurses have been trained at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences to carry out the complicated surgical procedures. An alumni of the college, Dr Apurba Sarma did the first two open heart surgeries in 2006. Doctors of the department started performing the challenging surgeries from 2007 onward, during which the number of successful surgeries has increased.
Till now, the highly specialized team of doctors, nurses and support staff has performed many open heart surgeries, apart from treating a range of other serious cardio-thoracic ailments.
Doctors and nurses serving in the department believe that with well-planned strategic measures, they would be better able to treat more people with heart conditions, including those who are in the waiting list.
�We admit that there is a backlog of patients who are waiting to be treated � unfortunately the backlog appears to be increasing,� said a cardio-thoracic surgeon who wished not to be named. Among those who figure in the list are patients of weak economic status who cannot afford the same treatment in private hospitals outside the State.
The need for at least two permanent anaesthesiologists has been acutely felt by the department in which administering anaesthesia is a highly skilled and demanding task. The doctor who now performs that critical procedure is also obliged to provide emergency service, and is therefore not available for the department to the desired extent.
There have been instances that surgeries were kept on hold because the doctor was busy at emergency work away from the department.
Another serious handicap has been the presence of just one perfusionist in the department. The perfusionist, a key player in cardiac surgery, has specialized knowledge to operate the heart-lung machine that keeps a patient alive when complex heart surgeries are done. Today, there is no second person in the department to take over in case the single specialist fails to be at the scene.
Significantly, the department also needs a trained technician to run the highly sophisticated electronic equipment. At present it has been run by an underpaid employee, whose service has not been regularized after nearly two decades of continuous work.
Even though the department has been able to make rapid advances, the authorities have been unable to look at the needs of the personnel who function as a well coordinated team that takes care of patients with serious ailments. Nurses with high levels of experience expressed their frustration of not having any promotional avenues.
It has also come to light that from time to time, the department suffers from shortage of some materials required during surgery, for which the patients have to purchase those.
