UDALGURI, July 22 - Though the 200-bed Udalguri Civil Hospital started functioning from 2011 with 100 beds at the initial stages, it is still operating without adequate physicians, nurses, necessary machinery, medicines like anti-venom and anti-rabies, and most importantly, a blood bank and a fully equipped operation theatre.
Due to the lack of these facilities, the hospital has been running only in name with only four doctors who cannot possibly attend to hundreds of patients thronging the hospital every day. A hospital employee informed this correspondent that the hospital, which admits a large number of pregnant women, has not got a gynaecologist till date. The hospital also does not have a pathologist and an anaesthetist. There are as many as seven vacant positions.
�It is quite hard to deal with the increasing number of patients coming from remote villages,� an NHM employee said.
A blood bank is the most important component of a civil hospital, but its importance has not been realised.
Dr Bhushan, a child health consultant of the NHM, today visited the Udalguri Civil Hospital and other community health centres at Tangla, Orang and Rowta, and took stock of the present condition of the hospitals. He laid stress on the opening of a blood bank at the Udalguri Civil Hospital at the earliest.
It may be noted that the Udalguri Civil Hospital has already obtained a licence to open a blood bank.
