GUWAHATI, Aug 7 � At a time when high infant mortality in Assam has emerged as a major issue in the health sector, the new Jorhat Medical College Hospital is facing a crisis situation in child care. Shortage of staff has affected the way the Paediatrics Department is functioning, and things will get worse when teaching of the subject begins in another six months.
Patients, many with no option to seek care anywhere else, are unable to have round the clock attention as only a small team of senior and doctors are presently employed at the newly developed facility. Sources told The Assam Tribune that there is only one professor, one associate professor, and two assistant professors to look after patients, creating a situation that is detrimental to patients and doctors alike.
The absence of the required number of junior doctors has added to the woes of patients.
Official sources speaking on condition of anonymity admitted that shortage of doctors is a major concern that has gone unaddressed since the start of the new medical college. �Infrastructure and equipment do exist, but human resource is the issue that has been ignored,� said a doctor serving the medical college.
Recent data indicates how the new medical college�s paediatrics department is facing overwhelming odds. In AMC, the oldest medical college in the state, the total strength in the paediatrics department is 50, in GMCH it is 38, and in SMC it stands at 23. Against this, there are only seven doctors in JMC to care for a patient load that is increasing by the day.
The absence of junior doctors in the college is another handicap for the department to function up to the desired level of expectation. Today the department does not have a single junior doctor, people who are considered the backbone in healthcare delivery in any hospital.
Authorities are aware of the situation, but still no initiative has been taken to employ more doctors to care for ailing children, many of whom come from underprivileged background.
The situation if unchanged will become more complicated when the seniors of the department will have to start teaching students. �It will compromise teaching as well as healthcare if the number of doctors do not increase substantially,� said a doctor serving in the hospital.
It needs to be mentioned that the department has a 30 bed indoor facility, which requires to be augmented. The footfall of patients is also on the rise with an average of around 100 patients a day availing outdoor services. However, with shortage of doctors both these issues have been sidelined.
