CRISIS HITS BRD COLLEGE AFTER 4 ANESTHETISTS RESIGN

GORAKHPUR : Resignation by four anesthetists on July 11 has led to severe crisis here at Gorakhpur’s BRD Medical College. The doctors had quit after hurling accusations of harassment by lecturer UC Singh. They had also accused principal Ganesh Kumar of not looking into their complaints. As many as 14 junior doctors assisting them had also offered to quit on the same charges. The four contractual doctors — Dr Raka Rai, Dr Priyanka Dwivedi, Dr Narendra Dev and Dr Parvez — had said that harassment by the lecturer had made it impossible for them to continue working at the medical college.

GORAKHPUR: Resignation by four anesthetists on July 11 has led to severe crisis here at Gorakhpur’s BRD Medical College.

The doctors had quit after hurling accusations of harassment by lecturer UC Singh. They had also accused principal Ganesh Kumar of not looking into their complaints. As many as 14 junior doctors assisting them had also offered to quit on the same charges.

The four contractual doctors — Dr Raka Rai, Dr Priyanka Dwivedi, Dr Narendra Dev and Dr Parvez — had said that harassment by the lecturer had made it impossible for them to continue working at the medical college.

“As anesthetists we have to take classes, conduct research and administer anesthesia before operations. Patients are to be handled very carefully during operation and the process takes time but Dr Singh pressurizes us to give anesthesia without following the due process,” said Dr Narendra Dev, one of the doctors who quit the job. “We will return to work only of he is removed,” he said. After their resignation, the hospital is now left with just two senior doctors who are handling limited number of cases.

“I showed hospital authorities the doctor’s prescription which suggested immediate operation but they told me that due to staff crunch operations procedures has been suspended for now. They have asked me to wait for next 20 days to get the appointment,” said Priyanshu, a patient.

Keeping in view the patient load and shortage of anesthetists, who play very crucial role in preparations before operations, two anesthetists have reportedly decided to give their extra services once a week to departments where cases of surgeries are piling.

Dr Sateesh, former head of department of anaesthesia who was jailed along with nine others in oxygen tragedy, is currently out on bail but has also not resumed services due to pending departmental probe against him.

Sources said college needs at least 15 to 20 anesthetists.

On an average, the hospital witnesses 6 to 8 operations daily in each of the six departments, including ENT, ortho, surgery and gynaecology. “In all, around 50 patients are operated daily. With the resignation of four doctors, the number of operations has reduced almost to half,” said GC Srivastava, superintendent in charge (SIC).

While the principal refused to comment on the prevailing crisis, a source closed to him said, “efforts are on to end the crisis by hiring anesthetists on contracts. Besides, we are also in talk with doctors who have resigned and requests have been made to them to rejoin.” Notably, minister for medical and technical education Ashutosh Tandon have also given assurance to 4 doctors.