The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : Infrastructure shortage ails Gandhi Hospital

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Sep 14, 2004

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Infrastructure shortage ails Gandhi Hospital

By Dennis Marcus Mathew

HYDERABAD, SEPT. 13. Gandhi Medical College (GMC) is celebrating 50 years of existence while Gandhi Hospital is celebrating its 154th anniversary. However, survival studded with records, noteworthy achievements and a continuing rush of patients -- 1,500 to 2,000 everyday -- seems to be just one side of the coin with the other pointing towards an appalling shortage of essential equipment, infrastructure and staff in both institutions.

Fund crunch

The medical college, which is expected to compete with the best in the country, does not have any grant to tackle recurring expenditure, while a nursing college, a physiotherapy college and other units, which are necessary to make it a full-fledged teaching college, remain absent.

The GMC Principal, G. Kishore Roy, says the college is planning to request the Government for a liberal grant for recurring expenditure while proposals to upgrade the college and hospital with infrastructure are also being chalked out.

Perennial problem

As for the hospital, staff shortage has been a perennial problem. The hospital has just 240 nursing staff, instead of 500, and nearly 250 Class IV employees instead of the required 500. Add to this is the absence of specialists in several wards, now being run by doctors with mere basic qualifications, and the functioning of Gandhi Hospital seems a miracle.

Skeletal staff is just one side, says Gandhi Hospital superintendent, A.Y. Chary. The hospital does not have a Computerised Tomography (CT) Scanner, which is essential. The absentee list of vital equipment is further extended by the absence of a Magnet Resonance Imaging (MRI) scanner, a Colour Doppler and the latest Cath Lab.

"One CT scanner at Gandhi can take care of patients not only from the twin cities, but also from almost the entire Telangana region," says Dr. Chary.

More shocking is the fact that the hospital does not have the necessary infrastructure to conduct an open-heart surgery. It's a sorry state of affairs for a hospital, which conducted the State's first open heart surgery in 1976 when many of the corporate hospitals were not even being dreamt about. The shortcomings have been brought to the fore when hundreds of children with congenital heart defects were first admitted to Gandhi and later shifted to private hospitals for surgeries.

The previous State Government, in fact, had set aside Rs. 20 crores for equipment to Gandhi Hospital. However, after Rs. 8 crores was spent on various equipment, the remaining amount is lying in the coffers waiting administrative sanction. Sources at Gandhi say tenders, which were called for different equipment, had to be cancelled after authorities showed no signs of waking up. The situation at other state-run hospitals and teaching colleges in the State capital is no different.

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