Doctors complain of heavy workload at Civil Hospital

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, January 25

Doctors at the Jallianwala Bagh Martyrs Memorial Civil Hospital have complained of heavy workload owing to a shortage of emergency medical officers. They said as a result, they have to perform emergency duties along with their general duties.

Senior doctors held a meeting with the hospital administration and apprised them of the problems faced by them due to vacant posts. The doctors said as per the workload criteria, the hospital needs to have at least 10 emergency medical officers. However, seven posts of emergency medical officer are vacant.

They said medical officers and specialist doctors have to perform duties at the trauma centre and the postmortem house. The doctors said they should be assigned duties as per their specialty. “The Health Department is already facing a shortage of specialist doctors as most of them prefer to run their own clinics or join a private establishment where they are paid better. Besides, they do not have to attend to unnecessary tasks as attending court cases,” said a doctor.

Senior Medical Officer Dr Arun Sharma said the matter had been brought to the notice of senior officials and the Health Minister. He said the authorities soon would find a solution to the problem.