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While the lawmaker garnered praise from all quarters for the humanitarian gesture, chief medical officer Dr Dharaniranjan Satpathy ruled out allegations of absence of doctors at the CHC
Sundargarh: In yet another instance betraying the sorry state of affairs in healthcare services in the State, an MLA was seen attending to patients at a community health centre (CHC) as doctors failed to show up amid staff shortage in Sundargarh district of Odisha here today.
As per reports, some doctors were attending to emergency cases round the clock at Rajgangpur CHC for the last three days as some of their colleagues were on leave. However, nearly 200 patients had to return from the hospital without medical assistance on Wednesday as the doctors were overburdened and refused to see any more cases. Patients again lined up at the hospital on Thursday morning but were disheartened as there were no doctors. As chaos ensued, MLA CS Raazen Ekka, on getting information about the situation, arrived at the CHC and started attending to patients. In a video that has gone viral, Ekka, who holds a medical degree, was seen stepping into the doctors’ shoes and prescribing medicines to patients. He reportedly took each case one by one and offered services to nearly a hundred patients since 8 am.
Even as the incident exposed the grave issue of staff shortage in government hospitals, it came to the fore that the CHC has only nine doctors against the sanctioned strength of 14.
While the lawmaker garnered praise from all quarters for the humanitarian gesture, chief medical officer Dr Dharaniranjan Satpathy ruled out allegations of absence of doctors at the CHC. “Yes, some doctors are on leave. But there are others who have been on duty. As patients suddenly turned up in large numbers, the doctors were unable to attend to all of them. As MLA Ekka is a doctor himself, he immediately turned up and attended to patients, I thank him for this noble gesture,” h added.
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