Health service: Nearly dozen posts of department heads lying vacant at JPMC

Public hospital facing shortage of doctors after devolution

KARACHI:

Out of 29 sanctioned posts of professors at Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC), only eight are currently filled while the rest are lying vacant in one of the largest health facilities of the country.

JPMC is facing an acute shortage of professors in various departments since the devolution from the federal government to the Sindh government after the 18 Amendment in 2010. The departments, deprived of professor, associate and assistant professors, are being run by junior doctors.

Staff scarcity

The facility has been running without a single professor of medicine, even though there are three sanctioned posts of professors in the medicine department. Meanwhile, only two associate professors of medicine are running the department against the four sanctioned posts of associate professors.



Same is the case in the department of general surgery, where there are no professors to deal with the large influx of patients. The department is being run by two associate professors only, while sanctioned posts of three professors of BPS-20 are still vacant.

Similarly, the department of gynaecology and obstetrics is also suffering due to the legal issues that the facility is facing. A professor and an associate professor are performing their duties at the department, while two posts still remain vacant.

Various other departments which are running without department heads include neuro-surgery, neurology, clinical pathology, radiotherapy, anesthesiology, medical intensive care unit (ICU), ophthalmology, renal medicine, urology, dentistry, biochemistry, microbiology, pharmacology and chief nursing superintendent of BPS-20. Whereas, out of two sanctioned posts of orthopaedic surgeons, only one doctor is currently providing services.



Moreover, a total of fourteen departments at JPMC have vacant posts for associate professors of BPS-19. These include dermatology, psychiatry, psychology, artificial kidney unit, ICU, dentistry, thoracic surgery, chest diseases, plastic surgery, neurology, urology, anatomy, physiology and physical medicine and rehabilitation. Likewise, the two vacant sanctioned posts at the department of radiology are yet to be filled by associate professors. In addition, there is only one associate professor of pathology working against the two sanctioned posts in the hospital. On the administrative side vacant posts in JPMC include two deputy executive directors, a deputy chief superintendent of BPS-19 and principal for college of nursing and school of nursing.



Other sections and departments deprived of assistant professors are radiologist (therapy, diagnostic and CT Scan), blood blank officer, three assistant professors of radiology, two assistant professors of neurosurgery, two clinical pathology, medicine, chest medicine, ICU, plastic surgery, microbiology, anatomy, physiology.

The post of senior hospital physicist, chief nursing superintendent, nutritionist, microbiologist, immunologist and five posts of nursing superintendents are also vacant. Out of three posts of assistant professors in ophthalmology, two are vacant, while out of six anesthesiologists, only three are providing services. Posts of assistant professor of ENT and nephrology are also vacant.

Suffering of patients

"The unavailability of professors and senior practitioners results in suffering of patients, which is reflected in the attendants' attitude," said one of the resident doctors in the gynaecology and obstetrics department.

According to JPMC focal person Dr Javed Jamali, the shortage of doctors is compensated with the help of postgraduate trainees and house officers. However, he added that the scarcity of lower staff has caused a real problem in managing the hospital.

Commenting on the low number of professors, JPMC executive director Professor Anisuddin Bhatti said even though the hospital is facing shortage of staff, they are not compromising on the services they provide.

Talking to The Express Tribune, health secretary Dr Saeed Ahmed Mangnejo said the Sindh government has to maintain the status quo due to the stay order by the court on the appointments and promotions of JPMC staff. However, he assured that the situation will improve once the court announces a verdict.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 23^rd,  2016.