Shortage of doctors adds to birth pangs
No-delivery-before-dawn notice put up at Tundi CHC forces pregnant women to travel up to 45 km at night
A no-delivery-beforedawn notice at Tundi community health centre (CHC) due to shortage of doctors — just one — has affected institutional delivery, forcing pregnant women to travel up to 45km at night to give birth.
Of the 16 doctors sanctioned, the CHC has only three, and two are on medical leave due to illness.
The lone Dr Nilam, who attends to all the patients from dawn to dusk informed the district headquarters about the suspension of institutional delivery at night and pasted a notice on the CHC notice board last week.
The move came after Dr ID Singh and another lady doctor, posted at Balkush PHC, went on medical leave.
Since the block is mostly backward having no private nursing home facilities, pregnant women going into labour have to travel either 22 km to the Govindpur CHC in the south, or 32 km to Giridih district headquarters in the north or 45 km to Topchach CHC in the west.
The ambulance services of Mamta Vahan in the block have come handy in this regard in Tundi, a Maoist-affected area, which has a population of 1.1 lakh people.
The CHC here had recorded the highest institutional deliveries in Dhanbad at 95-105 per month. Civil surgeon (CS) Dr Chandrambika Srivastava admitted that there was a crisis, but said, “There are sufficient number of auxiliary nurse midwives (ANM) to conduct institutional deliveries while critical cases can be referred to Patliputra Medical College and Hospital (PMCH).”
However, the ANMs of the CHC said due to risky nature of the job, they do not entertain delivery cases at night.
“Delivery cases mostly come at night. It would be tough for us to handle in case it becomes complicated. So we do not attend,” said an ANM.
Recently chief secretary Rajbala Verma had directed departmental proceedings against 42 medical officers of different CHCs including civil surgeon of Dhanbad and Gumla for poor achievement of institutional delivery.
Senior medical officer said Tundi CHC is not alone in this regard as almost all health centres in the 24 districts of the state are reeling under a shortage of doctors.
Dhanbad has a sanctioned strength of 125 medical officers, but only 36 have been appointed. In Ranchi, the sanctioned and actual numbers are 205 and 163 while Jamshedpur has 141 and 65.
There are sufficient number of auxiliary nurse midwives (ANM) to conduct institutional deliveries while critical cases can be referred to PMCH DR CHANDRAMBIKA SRIVASTAVA, civil surgeon