Super specialty hospital has one specialist

Seven years on, Janakpuri Super Speciality Hospital in west Delhi has only one specialist doctor. The hospital, completed in 2008, was built at a cost of Rs 70 crore, claiming to provide specialised healthcare facilities. But it has not become fully operational yet.

The condition of Delhi government’s another ambitious project – Rajiv Gandhi Super Speciality Hospital in Tahirpur in east Delhi built at a cost of Rs 153 crore – is similar.

The hospitals were meant to take the load off existing hospitals. But even after so many years, they are grappling with problems like shortage of doctors and lack of basic equipment, and some of their departments are yet to be opened.

The 300-bed Janakpuri Super Speciality Hospital, with only one super specialist, has asked the government to recruit 15 specialist doctors but not received any communication yet, according to medical superintendent Kulen Das. All eight posts of assistant professors are also vacant. The hospital has 33 resident doctors, who also look after the wards, and two medical officers.

“Shortage of manpower is the main problem we face. We have to depend on the government for recruitment. The file is with them and we cannot do anything till the Health Department okays it. Also, some resident doctors resign quickly when they come to senior posts,” Das says.

However, Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain told Deccan Herald that the hospital will get enough staff to run all services from March. Till then at least, patients suffer.

“I am coming here since last seven months and during this period, I have showed my reports to at least four doctors. It is a waste of time and energy to consult a different doctor each time and explain the case history again. When we ask for the same doctor, we are told that he is not available or busy in wards,” says Harvinder Kaur, a heart patient.

According to a resident doctor, the reason behind this is the staff shortage. “The hospital also hires doctors from other institutions and they have to go back as and when required. That could also be one of the reasons for people facing such difficulties,” the doctor, who did not wish to be identified, says.

The most distinguishing feature of the hospital is the clean marble-floored corridors, unlike any other government hospital. While the medical superintendent gives the credit for this to his staff and the training programmes on cleanliness, it may be because the hospital sees fewer patients than others. At 10 am on a weekday morning, some of the corridors wear a deserted look and the hospital in general gives an image of a newly opened facility.

No Emergency
The hospital does not provide the crucial emergency services. The medical superintendent concedes that though it will get the department, there are no immediate plans for it.

“There was an emergency case few months ago in which a man was in serious condition after meeting with an accident. People who brought him here did not know that the hospital does not have emergency services. He was referred to Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital where he was declared brought dead. Maybe, he could be saved if he was treated on time,” says a staffer.

Ironically, Das says even after the opening of the Emergency, the hospital won’t see a lot of rush as most accidents turn out to be orthopaedic cases and the hospital does not have that department, and has no plan to open it.

The hospital also lacks the facility of conducting tests like CT scan and MRI in its neurology department. In fact, until recently the hospital didn’t have any endoscopy machine. A single such equipment was recently purchased which will come into use by next month. Even tests like echocardiogram and TMT were started just some months ago.

But all is not bad with the hospital. It has dedicated its ground floor to the ‘very senior’ patients, above the age of 70, and the doctors of cardiology, nephrology, and neurology departments are available in the same room for them.

Rajiv Gandhi Hospital
Meanwhile, on the other side of the town, another 650-bed super specialty hospital, which was inaugurated by the Delhi government in 2003, has not picked up pace even after so many years.

According to the Delhi government website, Rajiv Gandhi Super Speciality Hospital provides “skeletal OPD services in cardiology and gastroenterology”. The almost non-functional hospital – spread over 13 acres in east Delhi with inadequate facilities and few doctors – shows the apathy in the health sector even when government hospitals face an acute shortage of beds to handle the huge traffic of patients from across the city and outside it.

Jain says the infrastructure in the two hospitals is being strengthened and these will be fully operational by March 2016.

The government is also planning to keep isolation wards ready at Rajiv Gandhi Super Speciality Hospital in case a swine flu outbreak occurs. It had earlier added 200 beds each at both the hospitals during the dengue outbreak, and staff from Deen Dayal Upadhyay and GB Pant hospitals was deployed to treat patients.