Srinagar: No additional staff has been allocated for handling the tripled bed capacity at SKIMS Medical College Hospital, even as the hospital has tripled its bed capacity to cater to the patients requiring orthopedic healthcare and emergencies.
Over the past two weeks, after the devastating fire at Bone and Joints Hospital, the SKIMS MCH increased its bed capacity to 92 from the existing 30.
However, the staff and the patients at the hospital are facing a tough time as neither the infrastructure, nor the doctors and other staff has received any fillip to handle the multiplied load.
A senior doctor privy to the situation said that the SKIMS MCH has around 25 Ortho doctors with only two dedicated theatre tables.
“The bed capacity has been ramped up to nearly 100 by occupying the wards of general surgery and Ophthalmology and entirely taking over the casualty,” he said. He added that currently the only way to increase the surgical output was to operate long hours and the department has been operating 12 hours daily.
The doctor said that there has been no increase in the operating areas and additional infrastructure has also not been provided. “The C Arm (an imaging scanner intensifier) has not been made available and this is resulting in a reduced output,” he said.
The doctor said an additional image intensifier is desperately needed at the hospital and it could be procured from the market on an existing rate contract or from the directorate of health services as several such machines were lying unused in its hospitals.
“If the Government demands the regular tendering approach in this hour of crisis, it will further deteriorate our scenario,” he said.
Another doctor at the hospital said that the operating infrastructure needs to be broadened at the hospital to reduce the load.
“We have managed this by using whatever leverage we have on the staff which has resulted in a lot of strain on all categories of employees, including anesthesia staff,” he said.
“The staff working hours have to come down and the bed encroachment of other departments cannot continue,” he said, pleading that the authorities could preferably make two other OT areas available to the Ortho department to allow greater operating output.
Head Department of Orthopedics at SKIMS MC, Dr Naseer Ahmed Mir said that the department is yet to bring about the difficulties to the notice of authorities.
“This is a crisis and we are still in crisis management mode. We have to write to higher-ups listing the requirements we need,” he said.
At Bone and Joint Hospital, the emergency services have started, however, are yet to pick up due to the constraints of space that the fire devastated building has brought in.