Doctors shuttle patients between emergency & OPD at district hospital

NOIDA: The district hospital in Sector 30 started its evening OPD service on October 26, and already the doctor deputed for the evening shift has complained to the chief medical officer about several issues in the OPD service.

While earlier, it was said that at least two doctors will do the evening OPD service, only one doctor has been deployed for the job so far.

Dr Pradeep Shailat, the doctor for evening OPD, told TOI that the emergency ward staff have been sending patients to the OPD that require emergency treatment.

“An elderly woman with breathing troubles was sent to us even though she needed immediate treatment in an emergency ward which has equipment like stabilizers. Many patients are being sent here even if they require direct emergency services,” he said. To this, the staff in the emergency ward said that they had too many cases to attend to.

“This is a new concept and these are initial hiccups,” CMO Dr Anurag Bhargava told TOI when asked about Dr Shailat’s complaint.

The CMO arrived at the hospital to take stock of the situation on Saturday and was also informed about the lack of staff for the evening OPD. Dr Shailat complained that there are no assistants for data entry of the patients in the evening.

The hospital management had planned to call a meeting to discuss these matters on Monday. “We will decide on the issue in a meeting on Monday,” Ajay Agrawal, chief medical superintendent, told TOI.

The evening OPD was started in the last week of October this year in the district hospital and two doctors were appointed under the National Health Mission scheme – one for the treatment of elderly and one specialized in treating non-communicable diseases.