Patients suffer as OPDs, OTs stay closed at GMCH & GMSH

Sandeep Rana

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 17

In the absence of any information about holiday at hospitals, number of patients, who visited OPDs at the Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH), Sector 32, and Government Multi Speciality Hospital (GMSH), Sector 16, remained a hassled lot on Friday.

Even those, who had surgeries scheduled at the operation theatres (OTs), were inconvenienced. As many as 15 to 20 persons have planned surgeries every day at the Sector 16 hospital while around 30 to 40 patients are operated upon at the Sector 32 hospital daily. On Friday too there were planned surgeries, but the OTs were closed at both hospitals. There were patients, who had to get ultrasound, MRI or CT scans done on Friday.

“I was given a date for the surgery at the GMCH on Friday. But, when I went to the OT it was closed without any prior intimation or notice. Now, I will have to extend my stay in Chandigarh to get another date. Like me, there are other patients too wandering around as they have no information,” said a patient from Haryana preferring anonymity.

“A true tribute to former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee would have been if those, who had scheduled dates in the OT for various surgeries, could have been operated upon as he himself believed in serving people. Even if they had to close the OPD, it could have been intimated through media,” quipped a faculty member.

The GMCH Director, Dr BS Chavan, did not respond to repeated calls. The GMCH Medical Superintendent, Dr Ravi Gupta, said, “The OPD and OT were closed on Friday. As the information regarding the holiday was received late in the night so we could not inform about it.”

Meanwhile, the GMSH Medical Superintendent, Dr Vandana Gupta, was unavailable for comments.

Setting a good precedent, the PGI, however, kept its Out Patient Department (OPD) open. “We have this arrangement at the hospital. If there is some last moment update about an off, we keep our OPD open so that patients do not suffer due to lack of information,” said a PGI official.