Gurgaon’s govt hospitals lack basic facilities

In the general ward of Gurgaon Civil hospital in Civil Lines, 75-year-old Jagannath Kumar, whose spine was injured after falling from the cycle, was lying on a hospital bed with one of his legs tied up and a brick hanging on the other end.

The brick was used as a traction bag, as the 200 bedded hospital lacks medical equipments. Kumar was staring blankly at his fractured leg on the morning of January 8, as he was to spend about a week more on the same bed with brick hanging to his leg.

“Soon I will be operated by the doctors here. This brick which is tied to my leg is the best treatment for me, I was told by the medical staff,” said Kumar.

Kumar’s plight is shared by many other patients who daily visit the hospital in the hope of getting treatment. Some are not even as lucky as Kumar, to at least get a bed.

The Civil Lines hospital has 200 in-patients and everyday it receives more than 3,000 outpatients, but the staff there can be seen struggling to meet the demand due to shortage of manpower.

In the past one decade, Gurgaon has witnessed its population growing at an alarming pace but the health care facilities and infrastructure have not been updated in keeping with that pace.

As per Census 2011, Gurgaon’s population was 15.14 lakh, which has now swelled to over 25 lakh as per rough estimates by various agencies of the district administration. There is a large chunk of population who cannot afford treatment and health care in private hospitals.

Hundreds of patients queue up for the appointments, despite no guarantee that the patient will be examined by the specialised doctors.

The hospital building, also needs a repair. For the past three years, several incidents took place when patients were injured because of the collapse of the ceilings.

“I came here to get my son examined for skin infection, however, even after visiting the hospital three times I am unable to get to see the doctor,” said Kamla Devi, a resident of Jharsa village, while waiting in a queue at Civil hospital in Civil Lines on January 8.

The hospital has only one dermatologist, sources said. The hospital has 57 doctors and 77 staff nurses , despite the sanctioned posts being 105 for doctors and 167 for staff nurses.

Because of the shortage of doctors, staff, and even medical equipments, the patients are not attended to properly, alleged patients and their attendants. With the lack of infrastructure and other facilities, including equipments to conduct MRIs patients are also referred to hospitals in New Delhi.

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Even in the emergency unit, patients have to wait for hours to get themselves admitted.

“I came with my five-year-old son at 9:30am and even after waiting for two hours we are unable to get us enrolled in emergency service. My son is suffering from pneumonia,” said Kalam Ahmed, a resident of Kapashera village.

Though Ahmad’s son required immediate treatment, the hospital did not have ventilators or oxygen masks for him for two hours.

Inside the wards, bins are overflowing, and parts of the ceiling often collapse. There is a shortage of surgical gloves and the MRI service is not functioning for the past six months, hospital sources said.

“We have everything in place and there is no shortage at all. We are working on a plan regarding the hospital building which is in poor condition. The building came into being in 1967, thus it is very old. We will either repair it or will get a new building soon,” said BK Rajora, chief medical officer, Gurgaon.

A similar scenario is at the Civil hospital in Sector 10.

“No one cares about us here. They do not inform if they are closing the hospital for a day. There is no information on which doctor is available on which day,” said Ganga Ram, a resident of Sector 9, who visited the Sector 10 hospital with along his wife who was suffering from fever and respiratory problems.

Sources in the hospital said there is a shortage of basic equipments, including surgical gloves, cotton, patients’ robe and saline drips, however, the chief medical officer denied the claims.

The hospital has got 100 new beds, however, the facility is yet to be functional and even medicines are often not available. At present the hospital Sector 10, which was inaugurated in the year 2000, has a total of 10 staff nurse whereas the required strength is on 26, said the hospital staff.

“I was asked to get medicines from outside. I came here to get checked up as I am feeling tired and feverish because of sudden weather change,” said Narender Singh, a resident of Sector 10.

“We have requested the state government for more staff nurses. Once we get the required strength, the hospital will open its wards,” said Pradeep Kumar, principal medical officer, Civil hospital, Sector 10.

The three-storey hospital building has lifts but they are not operational in the absence of electricity connection.

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“There is no designated counter for pregnant women. There is a need to increase the number of counters and staff. The queue at the counter to get a medical card is very long.”

Pancham Kumar Singh, resident, Sector 45

“We are forced to visit private hospitals as the service in the government hospital is very poor and they don’t have all the medical facilities needed.”

Rekha Devi, resident, Sector 17

“The hospital lacks hygiene. Even the attendants who come with patients are likely to fall sick if they stay in the hospital for few days.”

Krishna Devi, resident, Sector 5

“The Sector 10 hospital does not have medicines. The medical staff tells patients’ attendants to get medicines from outside; that’s inconvenient and expensive.”

Manju Devi, resident, Sector 10