Avtar Bhat
JAMMU, Oct 9: Not withstanding the claims of the Government to improve the medicare facilities in the State and throwing the standing rules of Medical Council of India (MCI) to winds, the Government Medical College (GMC) Jammu as well as its Super Specialty Hospital is presently confronted with shortage of faculty and other staff.
According to sources, the State Government for years together has failed to fill up the vacant posts in the GMC faculty despite knowing fully that Medical College Jammu is always overburdened with the rush of patients who are put to many problems due to shortage of doctors. Moreover, shortage of faculty in the key departments is also a blatant violation of the standing rules of Medical Council of India (MCI), sources added.
With the shortage of faculty, the doctors on duty are unable to cope up with the heavy rush of patients and fail to attend them properly which often results into clash between attendants of patients and doctors, sources said, adding however, the authorities in the corridors of power have never understood this problem to take effective measures by filling up the vacant posts.
Sources said over 30 percent posts of Associate Professors, 50 percent posts of Assistant Professors, 40 percent posts of Lecturers and 20 percent posts of Registrars are presently lying vacant in the GMC Jammu and despite the public outcry successive Governments took no pains in filling up the same.
The prevailing state of affairs in the Medical College has resulted into the problems to the patients coming for treatment here from far-flung areas of Jammu region with the result people are compelled to take the patients to outside State or Narayana Super Specialty Hospital Katra for better medicare facilities, sources added.
Sources said that the GMC Jammu, besides post of Principal has the sanctioned strength of 62 posts of Associate Professors in various faculties out of which 44 are functioning at present while rest are vacant. Likewise out of 75 sanctioned Assistant Professors posts in the college, 38 are functioning at present while rest are vacant for years together, sources confirmed.
Sources said out of 121 sanctioned posts of Lecturers in the GMC Jammu, only 78 are functioning while rest are vacant. The College has also a sanctioned strength of 119 Registrars in various departments, out of which 95 are working and rest are vacant. Besides in super specialty Hospital, the Government has created 250 posts for nurses out of them 177 are working while the rest are vacant.
Sources said the Neurosurgery and Neurology departments in GMC are totally defunct as posts of Professors, Associate Professors are totally lying vacant in the two departments. Even in Urology Department the posts of Professor and Associate Professor are lying vacant and in Nephrology the post of Professor is lying vacant as one senior doctor who was working as the Professor Nephrology in Super Specialty Hospital has been posted in Medicine Department as professor recently. This Department is also virtually defunct as posts of Associate as well as Assistant professors are also lying vacant.
Sources said the political interference has been one of the major causes of the problem as the doctors with degrees of MCH or DM instead of being posted in GMC where their services are needed most are transferred in remote areas where the hospitals neither have basic infrastructure nor facilities to treat the patients with the result, these doctors say good-by to the Government job in the State and join private hospitals and Medical Colleges in other States. This is because the proper mechanism has not been evolved by the Health and Medical Education Department over the years to improve the faculty in GMC.
The Government has also thrown the sanding rules of Medical Council of India (MCI) to winds to such an extent that the post of Principal has not been given confirmation for last four years and the present incumbent is not given even the charge allowance as Principal.
Sources said the present incumbent to the post has written a number of letters to the Government in this regard seeking his confirmation as Principal or grant of charge allowance to him for functioning as Principal but no action has been taken in this regard till date.
With the increasing work load the junior doctors are unable to cater to the increasing rush of patients in these departments, sources added.
Sources said the present staff in GMC is hard pressed as it has to cater to the entire region.
Sources said the failure of State Government’s to make the GMC Jammu functional properly puts a question mark on Government’s sincerity to make the new five more Medical Colleges functional properly out of which the foundation stone of three colleges was laid already by the Union Minister of Health J P Nadda.
Sources said the dilly -dallying tactics of State Government to make the trauma hospitals and district hospitals functional properly has been one of the causes of increasing rush on staff starved GMC Jammu and the authorities at the helm of affairs are not bothered to look into the same.
To run the Medical College and its Super Specialty Hospital, the authorities have utilized the services of some retired doctors on contractual basis. In Anesthesia Department, some posts of senior doctors are also lying vacant.
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