The Times of India: Nagpur: Friday, July 06, 2012.
The number of patients walking into Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH) has constantly been falling over the last few years, so have the number of surgeries being performed in the hospital. This was revealed in the answers to an RTI query by the hospital authorities.
An RTI application was sent to the authorities by the Central India Surgical Dealers Association questioning them about the number of patients in the hospital in the last four years. GMCH, Asia's largest government-run medical college, was once a glorious institution but several such revelations have marred its image in recent times.
The patient flow in OPD has reduced significantly in these years. In OPD (new) there were 4,74,882 patients in 2008 which rose to 5,17,407 in 2009 but fell to 3,83,525 in 2010 and came further down to 2,61,860 last year. Similarly in OPD (old) in 2008 there were 1,81,111 number of patients. The number rose to 2,42,102 in 2009 and 3,56,389 in 2010 but in 2011 it reduced to 3,03,948.
As far as major surgeries are concerned the number fell to 11,412 in 2011 from 12,701 in 2008. Similarly in 2008, 33,275 in minor surgeries were performed which reduced to 27,912 in 2011.
Insiders ascribe this fall to the persistent insufficiency of supplies, including essential drugs as well as surgical goods in the hospital. "A hospital that receives such a heavy flow of patients is expected to be well equipped. Most times, we have to tell the patients to buy things like syringes, plasters and many important medicines from outside despite the fact that the hospital is supposed to provide these to the poor patients who come here," said one of the doctors of the hospital.
"Due to outstanding bills amounting to more than a crore of rupees, the surgical dealers had decided to stop supplying goods to the hospital, some dating back to a couple of years. Despite several promises made in this regard, Directorate of Medical Education and Research (DMER) failed to pay us back," said Prince Uppal, president of Central India Surgical Dealers Association. The RTI reply, though, states that there are no outstanding bills to be paid to the dealers. "This has also forced one of our dealers to serve a legal notice to GMCH," he added.
Recently, the hospital's chapter of Maharashtra Association of Resident Doctors (MARD) had gone on a strike for various insufficiencies, one of which was the lack of life-saving drugs in the hospital. "It is common knowledge that the hospital has an insufficient stock of several essential medications, even the most commonly needed ones like syringes, saline and antibiotics. Though we are not the ones responsible for this insufficiency, we are the ones who have to face angry relatives who often resort to violence," said Dr Parag Kinage, MARD president at GMCH.
In reply to one of the other questions raised through RTI, the hospital said that it does not have enough syringes, formalin, plaster of Paris and other material needed for surgeries.
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