CUTTACK: The move is bound to evoke cynicism if it would serve the actual purpose but the Health Department seems to have finally woken up to the gross maladministration that has virtually put the City Hospital or the District Headquarters Hospital, Cuttack, in a limbo. The Department, after almost three months of submission of a memorandum by the Orissa Medical Services Association (OMSA), the body of Government doctors, drawing attention to the deterioration in health services delivery system in the hospital, has ordered an inquiry by the Director of Health Services and take appropriate action in the connection. The OMSA had called for a high-level inquiry into the functioning of the hospital and the irregularities by the administrative authorities, particularly the Chief District Medical Officer (CDMO) following a spate of alleged negligence-caused deaths in June and July this year.In June, the city was shocked when a woman delivered a stillborn baby at the gates of the hospital as she was not properly attended to. A day later, a 65-year-old woman was made to do rounds of the hospital and succumbed while in July another woman died along with her newborn in the delivery room due to alleged negligence. “We had submitted the memorandum in August but the fact that it took the Health Department months to order the probe exposes its sincerity in tackling the problems that haunt the health delivery system in the State,” said a senior member of OMSA. The OMSA has alleged that the hospital has been the refuge of the poor, the downtrodden sections and it has no dearth of specialists and paramedics to deal with the patient-load. Despite availability of doctors, staff and facilities at the DHH, patients were being indiscriminately referred to the SCB Medical College and Hospital under the plea of better treatment. It is found that many specialists and doctors were not staying beyond OPD hours and not attending emergency duty. There have been instances that when staff nurses were conducting delivery even though there was no shortage of gynaecologists, the premier doctors’ body has stated.OMSA general secretary Dr Kishore Chandra Mishra alleged that the CDMO was directly responsible for the situation. “A racket is under work at the district Health Office. The guidelines stipulate transfer of clerks and staff, who have worked beyond three years in their positions, and the Government has issued repeated orders for their shifting including one senior clerk Asit Baran Swain. But the CDMO has not budged. And it is both curious and disturbing that the Department authorities appear to be powerless before the CDMO,” Mishra said.
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