BANGALORE: The Ulsoor Referral Hospital, especially the maternity ward in the hospital, falls short of meeting the basic requirements both in terms of basic facilities and staff.While funds have been sanctioned to improve the facilities at the hospital, corporators and health officers find themselves helpless when it comes to recruiting more doctors.The first thing that strikes you as you enter the hospital is the general lack of cleanliness.The maternity ward has only one warmer and no incubator. In terms of hospital staff, there is only one gynaecologist and two nurses.However, as you leave the hospital and reach the end of the road, you can see a hoarding listing the corporator’s plans to re-develop the hospital. When contacted, Gautam Kumar, the corporator of the area, said that funds have been sanctioned by the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike to improve the condition of the hospital.He also said that he met with the superintendent at the hospital, Nusrat Bai. She said that a new Operation Theatre (OT) room needed to be constructed at the hospital.“I have asked the executive engineer to chart out the estimates. As of now up to `50 lakh have been sanctioned for redevelopment purposes,” said Kumar.Improving sanitary conditions, fixing water pipes, ensuring that all the damages are fixed are some of the measures that have been planned. There is also a need to construct another ward for patients along with a separate doctor’s room.When asked about the lack of medical facilities at the maternity ward, Gayatri, chief medical officer, BBMP, said that there was no problem.She further added that she had received no complaints about the services at the hospital either.The BBMP website claims that the corporation plans to upgrade the cleaning and laundry services at Maternity Homes and Referral Hospitals by giving it to private players.Along with this, the security services are also going to be privatised as per the website. But the cleaning, laundry and security services at the Ulsoor Referral hospital have not been privatised yet.When it comes to increasing the number of doctors, there seems to be no concrete plan in place.According to the recruitment policy, the responsibility to appoint doctors at BBMP hospitals is being shared equally by the corporation and the Government.It is alleged that while BBMP has managed to appoint doctors and fulfilled the 50 percent share, the Government has still not done anything to bring more doctors to the hospitals.According to Gayatri, 15 doctors were called for the interview at the Ulsoor hospital during recruitment, of them 11 appeared for the interview. All were selected.However, only five doctors reported for duty.She also said that another gynaecologist was soon to be appointed. Though the government had been approached to resolve the dearth of doctors, there has been no response yet.
Comments
0 comment