JAMMU: Death of a 60-year old heart patient while undergoing treatment at the GMC’s Super Specialty Hospital in Jammu has once again triggered a fresh debate over the poor state of affairs in the premiere health institution of the State.
As per family members of the deceased, the patient, identified as Chuni Lal resident of RS Pura, was admitted in Government Medical College & Hospital (GMC&H) on 22nd December, 2016 following cardiac illness and was later shifted to GMC’s Super-specialty Hospital in Ward No. 6 under the supervision of Dr Sanjeev Bhat and Dr Dharminder. The patient succumbed late Sunday night before he could receive emergency treatment in the absence of doctors of the cardiac unit.
The most crucial lapse on the part of doctors supervising the critically ill patient was delaying angiography.
Admitting that there was a lapse on the part of the nursing staff, Dr Dharminder said, “I am on vacations. How I can be blamed?”
“I went to the hospital after the death of
the patient,” Dr Dharminder disclosed.
If the doctors had carried out the procedure in time the fate of patient would have been different.
Government has provided residential flats to the doctors near the GMC. Vacations doesn’t mean that they will not come to hospital in case of emergency. After death of the patient why he arrived at the hospital, rued the aggrieved family members.
According to preliminary assessment the death was caused due to sheer negligence on the part of the senior consultants, posted in the separate wing of the SSH.
It is learnt the doctors had delayed the angiography on account of Sunday being a holiday.
These two doctors Dr Bhat and Dr Dharminder were posted in the separate unit created at the behest and intervention of the state Health Minister Bali Bhagat.
The reasons behind bifurcating the most crucial department was best known to the architects of the decision but the existing arrangement is adversely affecting the patients admitted in the department.
The working of the State Health Minister has also come under the scanner for ordering large scale transfers of senior doctors in the State Health Department. Majority of doctors, who have been posted to a new destination questioned the logic behind deciding the place of posting of senior consultants.
In some of the cases the doctors with long experiences of serving in district hospital have been shifted to remote area where patients won’t be able to receive the treatment in the absence of proper infrastructure.
The infamous nexus between doctors and politicians has again surfaced in the Health Services, causing concern among the people, who feel vulnerable while admitting their patients in the hospitals. Indiscipline and lack of accountability is at galore in the premier GMC and its SSH, least to speak of semi-urban and rural health facilities.