Staff shortage in hospitals may increase the problems of patients

Shimla. A new schedule for the management of health services is going to be implemented from July 22 in the two largest medical institutions of Shimla, the capital of Himachal Pradesh—Indira Gandhi Medical College (IGMC) and Super Specialty Hospital located in Chamiyana. 50 percent of the doctors of these two major hospitals are going on summer vacation from 22 July to 5 August. This schedule of doctors’ holidays has been prepared by the hospital administration in such a way that the patients coming from far away places do not have to face any kind of inconvenience and the health services continue to run smoothly. According to the hospital administration, this summer leave given to the doctors will be for a total of seven days, which has been divided into two different batches. The first group of doctors will be on leave from July 22 to July 28. After this, the first batch will return and the second group of doctors will go on leave from July 30 to August 5. Amidst this entire schedule, 29th July has been kept as ‘Common Day’. On this special day, all the doctors of both the batches of the hospital i.e. 100% staff will be present on duty, so that the crowd of pending cases and patients can be handled. After this, all the doctors will start providing their services regularly from August 6 after the entire period of summer vacation is over. To smoothly implement this leave process, all the departments of IGMC and Chamiyana Super Specialty Hospital have completed their administrative preparations. All departments including cardiology, neurology, gastroenterology and orthopedics have prepared lists of doctors and submitted them to the hospital administration. In these lists, it has been made clear which doctor from which department will go on leave in the first batch and who will stay in the hospital in the second batch. These lists are now under final review by the hospital administration and the official duty roster will be released soon, to ensure that emergency or critical services do not come to a standstill due to shortage of doctors in any department. The news of half of the doctors going on leave together usually increases anxiety among patients and their families, but the hospital administration has made it completely clear that health services will not be allowed to be affected. Since only 50 per cent of doctors from each department will be on leave at a time and the remaining 50 per cent will be on standby in the hospital, OPD, indoor wards and emergency services will continue to function as normal. Apart from Shimla, a large number of serious patients from entire Himachal Pradesh reach Chamiyana Super Specialty Hospital and IGMC for treatment. Keeping this in mind, the duties of senior residents and available faculty members have been rotated. With this strategic management, it is expected that patients will not have to wait long for treatment and this summer vacation period will pass peacefully without any major problems.

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