Doctor's 'sting operation' exposes glaring issues

Technicians allegedly disappeared without any prior notice

Suraj Kumar Shrivastava (43), a diabetic, had seen his condition deteriorate over the past few days. As his condition worsened, his wife Geeta took him to Lady Hardinge Medical College for treatment. But a rude shock awaited them as the couple discovered that the main Operation Theatre at the hospital was closed.


Technical glitch: Out of five tables in the operation theatre at Lady
Hardinge Medical College only one is usable. file pic

On the 12th of November, the hospital witnessed its worst day as technicians working at the OT, vanished from the hospital without giving any prior notice and did not return for long hours. Sources say doctors and nurses, along with the other staff, were fully prepared to provide treatment to patients, but were rendered incapable.
As per the doctors, this is not the first time that such an incident has occurred.

Apparently, the OT remained closed from 9 in the morning till 2 in the afternoon. There were around nine patients standing in queue to get treatment.

"This is what they do frequently. The technicians do not understand the importance of the patient's condition. We have been complaining to the higher authorities, but no action has been taken yet," said a senior doctor on the condition of anonymity.

Irritated with the behaviour of the technicians, now doctors have taken matters into their own hands. On that day, one of the doctors present in the OT recorded a video showing the helplessness of the doctors in the absence of the technicians.

"Sadly, we have to do it so that higher officials can understand the problems that we face. There are only five tables in the OT and out of them only one was operational at the time," said another doctor present in the OT on Friday.

The video, which is exclusively with MiD DAY, clearly shows how 10- 15 doctors are waiting to treat patients, but there are no proper arrangements to make that possible.

When family members of a patient became agitated as his condition turned critical, doctors themselves took charge and completed all the tasks that were to be performed by technicians. "The patient's condition was growing serious with time; we had to take the decision. We all took him into the OT and operated upon him," said another doctor who wished to remain anonymous.

As per the doctors, when the patients and their relatives felt that nothing was happening, they went to the office of the director to meet him, but without success.u00a0 They had to run from pillar to post to ensure some action was taken.

"The patients finally came to me saying that even the director wasn't helping them. They were being asked to go from one place to another," said a doctor. "We have been running from here to there. Is this a hospital or what? We are coming here to get treatment and they are just asking us to roam around inside the hospital," said Ramesh Bindu, whose wife required treatment.