Staff crunch puts evening OPD service in limbo

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, December 9

The shortage of doctors and staff is said to be the main reason behind the failure to start evening OPD in Bathinda. The government had earlier planned to start outdoor patients’ services in the evening in all the districts.
Specialist doctors and medical officers were not in favour of starting the evening OPD services that would have directly affected the patients due to inadequate staff. They had earlier condemned the move of the state government to start the OPD services in the evening despite the fact of shortage of para-medical staff and doctors across the state.
They had earlier demanded to stop the violation of rules and regulations of the state government, which had issued a notification earlier in 2012 that no specialist doctor would perform extra duty or emergency duty.
To perform the evening duties, the names of a few doctors were listed who would have provided service up to 5 pm but no doctor performed the duty.
“The doctors had to perform their duty from 9 am to 2 pm, whereas the evening OPD would divide the duty shifts between the doctors. The civil hospitals in all the districts are already facing staff crunch.”
About 1,000 patients visit the Civil Hospital in the city every day.
“The evening OPD facility has not been started due to some reasons. There is a shortage of doctors and the staff and this would have added to the woes of the department. We will decide to start the service soon. The government is soon going to recruit a number of doctors.” said Dr Tejwant Singh Randhawa, Civil Surgeon, Bathinda.