KAMALABARI, June 28 - Just a day after three doctors were suspended by the Government for not joining duty at the Sri Sri Pitambar Dev Goswami Garamur Civil Hospital in Majuli, several socially conscious citizens across the river island today in a virtual SoS pleaded the State Government to take urgent measures to reappoint new doctors and supporting staff in order to provide adequate healthcare services to the islanders.
For the record, at least 450 to 500 patients daily register their names for diagnosis and treatment at the 100-bed civil hospital.
�Most of the patients at present are suffering from various types of viral infection which requires proper diagnosis and treatment. At present, the civil hospital desperately requires atleast 10 doctors to provide proper treatment for the growing number of patients,� observed a senior doctor of the hospital.
On being asked whether the existing number of medical officers, both senior and junior category, could provide adequate services to the ailing patients on a daily basis, the Superintendent of the civil hospital Dr Niranjan Das said that every doctor irrespective of department concerned had to perform their duty with utmost care and philanthropic zeal for proving much-needed succour to the large number of patients, that too, on a regular basis.
�Yes, we are in dire need of medical officers here. But everyone of us are trying our level best to provide necessary treatment to the ever growing number of patients on a regular basis during this monsoon season. Around 500 patients have been coming to this civil hospital daily since the past few days,� observed Dr Niranjan Das.
Due to the absence of a pathologist in the hospital, several patients and their guardians/attendants have been compelled to cross the surging waters of the mighty Brahmaputra and its tributaries either to avail services at private pathological laboratories in Jorhat or North Lakhimpur, which creates serious financial, physical and logistical problems for both the patients and their attendants.
Recounting past instances, several critical patients have died, including pregnant women, while undertaking the hectic journey from Majuli to Jorhat Medical College Hospital, after they were referred for better treatment.
It may perhaps be pertinent to mention here that many a medical practitioner here has to face an unsavoury situation during times of emergency treatment due to lack of a blood bank in river island Majuli.
Over and above the absence of a pathologist, the civil hospital under reference does not have sufficient number of doctors in various other departments like Medicine, Gynaecology, Surgery, Anesthesiology, and many others.
Despite the odds, a small band of dedicated doctors and their para-medical staff serving in the civil hospital often go out of their way to help ameliorate the plight of the patients. Not for nothing, therefore, do some islanders rever them as demi-gods.)
