15 June,2011 06:59 AM IST | | Astha Saxena
AIIMS management shocker has resident doctors fuming, they say this solution is useless
Perhaps for the first time in the history of the premier institute, the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) has accepted that there have been delays in admission of patients from the emergency ward. So far, AIIMS, which is one of the premier institutes in the country, has never acknowledged that there are delays in the admissions.
It's a first: AIIMS has for the first time admitted a delay in admission
of patients from emergency ward Pics/Mid Day
Some doctors say that the institute is supposed to be a referral
hospital and not everyone should be allowed to come for treatment here
A meeting was convened with the Chief of Centres and all the Heads of Departments (HODs) on May 24 to discuss the problems pertaining to delay in admissions of patients from emergency and also about improving patient care services in emergency. Apart from this, the reason for the delays and their solutions were also planned out. MiD DAY exclusively has the minutes of the meeting (MOM). One of the solutions was to give contractual appointment to new doctors who will be hired.
"The meeting was held to resolve few issues regarding delays in the admission of patients. But the plan for
contractual appointments is of no use. They are again repeating the same mistake," one of the senior officials, who was present in the meeting, said on condition of anonymity.
Apparently, various issues were highlighted in the meeting such as senior resident doctors take unduly long time to respond to calls from the emergency. The issue of departments being reluctant in admitting patients from emergency was also discussed.
"How can they blame departments for the delay? If we are already looking after a particular patient in our department, then how can we leave that patient and run to the emergency?" asked one of the head of departments, AIIMS.
Testing times
Another issue raised in the meeting was that the detailed tests are prescribed by the senior residents of the departments without shifting the patient to the ward of the particular department. They have alleged that this is a tactic to delay shifting of the patients. "This is not true. Only those tests are prescribed to the patients which are available round the clock at AIIMS. It is not our problem if the tests generally take two hours to get done. It's a normal routine there," added the doctor.
Interestingly, one of the solutions is to give contractual appointments to doctors to figure out whether they are suited to look after the emergency."Contractual appointments have been spoiling the system. It will worsen the situation for the administration as well as the appointed person," said Dr Debjyoti Karmakar, President, Resident Doctors' Association (RDA), AIIMS.
"These are management problems and the medical superintendent and hospital administration need to sort them out. But blindly recruiting more people will not solve the problem at all," said Dr Manoj Singh, President, Faculty Members Association, AIIMS.
The minutes mention that the president of RDA was neither present in the meeting nor did he send any intimation about his inability to attend the meeting. However, Karmakar rejects this. "We were not even informed about the meeting. Moreover, this is not the first time that they are unnecessarily blaming us. They have done this before also. I will definitely take up the matter," added Dr Karmakar.
A few doctors, however, have a different approach towards the issue. They say that the institute is supposed to be a referral hospital and not everyone should be allowed to come for treatment here. They also feel that AIIMS should take a lesson from foreign medical institutes about how they tackle similar issues.
"According to me, the casualty and outpatient department (OPD) should be closed down. AIIMS is supposed to be a referral hospital, but due to political pressure, we cannot refuse patients. The patients should either go to Safdarjung or RML hospital," said one of the officials on condition of anonymity.
"By taking proactive and corrective measures and taking a look the manuals of any foreign institutes, they can bring in modifications at AIIMS too," said Dr Karmakar.
Out of network
Doctors are also complaining that most of the time their official numbers do not work due to the poor network.
"Many a times our numbers don't work as we are underground. Sometimes, while we are at the emergency, we are sent messages to reach the casualty immediately. But due to the poor network, we get the messages late, when it's of no use," said one of the senior resident doctors from AIIMS on condition of anonymity.Dr DK Sharma, Medical Superintendent of AIIMS, who was also present in the meeting, refused to comment on the issue. "I am out of station and will return in three days. I will then check and let you know," said Dr Y K Gupta, official spokesperson, AIIMS. The institute is already embroiled in a controversy regarding contractual appointments.
Contract woes at AIIMS
Less than a year after the administration was forced to withdraw an advertisement for contract appointment of faculty members in the ENT and Medical Oncology departments, All India Institute of Medical Sciences has issued another advertisement for contract faculty posts in the ENT and Neurosurgery departments, according to senior faculty members at the Institute. "The selection process for regular appointments at AIIMS is already underway so there can be no tearing hurry for these contract appointments. The obvious motive is to unfairly place the contract appointees in an advantageous position for regular selections. It is obvious that vested interests are involved," noted a senior faculty member. A release issued by the Progressive Medicos and Scientists Forum (a forum consisting of scientists and faculty members from AIIMS among others) noted that the administration has brought the Neurosurgery Department to a piquant situation by forcing the resignations of neurosurgery faculty by not promoting meritorious faculty in the recently held selections. It is possible that the promotions were denied to make way for "favoured" selections, said the release. "It is the third move on the part of the Union Health Ministry to force AIIMS to make appointments of faculty members on contract within three years; though it goes against the government policies that try to ensure that contract and ad-hoc appointments for university teachers are minimised. It is also against AIIMS policy that ad hoc appointments will not be made," noted the release issued by the Forum.
BoxHead
MiD DAY had earlier reported how the institute promoted 124 doctors out of 164 whose appointment has been in controversy since 2003.
