‘Systemic problems’ plague KGMU
Following the recent tragic death of dozens of infants at Gorakhpur’s BRD Medical College, allegedly due to short supply of oxygen, HT does a reality check of what ails medical colleges and their associated hospitals in Uttar Pradesh. Today, we bring to f
LUCKNOW: The King George’s Medical University (KGMU), which figures among the top three medical institutes of the country, is today struggling to retain this distinction.
Sample this: One Rajkumar spent nearly half an hour in queue for registration and another hour in the OPD waiting area of King George’s Medical University (KGMU), but he took solace from the fact that he could have his father examined by a doctor.
But his happiness was s hort-lived as medicines could not be prescribed. “There was a long queue for diagnostic tests… so I could not get it done… will have to come again tomorrow,” he lamented.
Thousands of such patients/ attendants come to the KGMU every day, but services at this 4,000-bed hospital with over 76 departments are far from satisfactory.
Most of the patients here have to purchase medicines from private drug stores as the medicine counters on the campus do not have drugs prescribed by doctors, indicating lack of coordination between physicians and the procurement cell.
Though the KGMU administration has set up generic drug stores, the benefits are yet to trickle down to everyone.
As patients enter the campus, they have to struggle for almost everything.
Despite over 300 guards deployed on the campus, the stretchers are locked and one gets them only after submitting an ID proof with the in-charge.
However, issues concerning the hospital are taken up by the KGMU administration wing from time to time.
“At least once a month, the hospital administration wing holds a meeting on issues that are raised frequently,” said Prof NS Verma, spokesperson, KGMU.
Established in 1905, the medical university saw its last big expansion in the form of Centenary Hospital that became functional in 2014. It was conceptualised in 2005.
MEASURES TAKEN, DISCONTINUED
Many measures for better healthcare were adopted on the KGMU campus, but later discontinued as the nodal officer or the person who initiated them either left the campus or got sidelined. Services like patient transport vehicles (PTV) to ferry patients on the campus for diagnostic services and wrist bands for patients in emergency wards to avoid incorrect medication were introduced and later discontinued.
A number of times changes were made in the functioning of new emergency complex (on how to deal with patients), but each time the nodal officer was changed, there were changes in the measures as well.
ADMINISTRATIVE POSTS FOR DOCTORS
All hospital related administrative work is assigned to the doctors who are also entrusted with the tasks of teaching, training, research and clinical work. The KGMU teachers’ association has been opposing this arrangement since long.
“With four big tasks already taking a lot of time, administrative work is an additional burden for doctors. Posts for administration work should have a permanent staff as per the qualification required,” said Dr Santosh Kumar, general secretary of the teachers’ association.
POOR BUDGET
The KGMU has been hit by reduced budget this year. While the key allocation for repairs etc came down to ₹69 crore from previous year’s ₹96 crore, the budget for purchase of equipment came down to ₹35 crore from ₹155 crore.
As a result, equipment requiring repair gets defunct. “We have asked the state government to provide more funds. The allocation is likely in the supplementary budget of the state,” said Dr SN Sankhwar, chief medical superintendent.