SILCHAR, Sept 26 - Five days after Health Minister Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma had expressed his dissatisfaction over the performance of the Department of Cardiology at the Silchar Medical College and Hospital, particularly in the context of pacemaker surgeries, the department head Dr PC Sarma on Saturday said that lack of medical staff is plaguing the performance of the department.
�The Department is suffering from acute shortage of doctors and medical staff for a number of years. Barring myself in the post of professor and Dr AH Choudhury as one of the registrars, there are no Associate Professors, Assistant Professors, and Non-PG Resident Doctors in the department. Also, there is a serious dearth of the support staff. In place of four technicians for ECG, we are managing with one. We are lacking in the availability of nursing attendants as well,� Dr Sarma maintained. He was quick to add that they have a office but there are no peons and typists to carry out the daily chores.
Turning the pages of history, Dr Sarma said that since his joining the department in 1995, there has been a sharp increase in the ratio of patients. But, in his words, there are insufficient doctors and support staff to meet the demands. �In the past 20 years, there has been a steep increase of patients coming for treatment here. But due to lack of manpower, coupled with occasional ill behaviour from some of the nursing staff, patients prefer to opt for treatment elsewhere,� Dr Sarma claimed.
