Overlooked issues: Mother and child centre lacks staff, equipment
Only two medical officers attend to an average of 200 OPD patients daily.
Only two medical officers attend to an average of 200 OPD patients daily.
ISLAMABAD:
The Mother and Child Health (MCH) Centre at the Pakistan Institute of Health Science faces acute shortage of professional staff, surgical equipment and beds.
A senior doctor while maintaining anonymity told The Express Tribune that the 125-bed centre badly needed funds to improve its services, which have touched the lowest ebb.
“It looks like the care centre of a District Headquarters Hospital than a tertiary care hospital,” said the doctor.
He added that only one or two medical officers were currently attending to an average of 200 patients visiting the OPD on a daily basis.”Considering the workload, there is a need to have 15 to 20 medical officers at the centre,” the doctor said.
“It is shocking that instead of senior and regular doctors, postgraduate trainees attend to mothers most of the time, advising expecting mothers to have deliveries through C-section,” said the doctor.
“Senior gynecologists don’t visit the ward in the evening and in the morning regularly and prefer to sit in their private clinics, leaving the patients at the mercy of junior trainee doctors,” said the doctor.
Around 80 nurses currently work at the MCH Centre in three shifts, who, according to the patients were not sufficient, said the doctor.
“There is a need to double the number of nurses to share the workload,” said the doctor.
Meanwhile, a senior administration said that the MCH Centre lacked financial resources to purchase new surgical equipment.
“They are using outdated surgical equipment and lack money to replace them,” said the official.
An ultrasound machine gifted by the Japanese government is not functioning but the hospital lacks funds to fix it, said the official.
“The heads of the department do not have the authority to take any decision and have to wait for the vice-chancellor’s node for everything, which takes a lot of time,” said the official.
“The MCH Centre is also facing a severe shortage of beds,” said the official adding that most of the time patients have to be adjusted on beds,” said the official.
“It is not safe to ask patients to share beds as in such a situation patients could be exposed to communicable diseases,” said the official.
Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto (SZAB) Medical University Vice-Chancellor Prof Javed Akram said that they were working on an extension project to address all these issues at the MCH Centre.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 6th, 2015.
The Mother and Child Health (MCH) Centre at the Pakistan Institute of Health Science faces acute shortage of professional staff, surgical equipment and beds.
A senior doctor while maintaining anonymity told The Express Tribune that the 125-bed centre badly needed funds to improve its services, which have touched the lowest ebb.
“It looks like the care centre of a District Headquarters Hospital than a tertiary care hospital,” said the doctor.
He added that only one or two medical officers were currently attending to an average of 200 patients visiting the OPD on a daily basis.”Considering the workload, there is a need to have 15 to 20 medical officers at the centre,” the doctor said.
“It is shocking that instead of senior and regular doctors, postgraduate trainees attend to mothers most of the time, advising expecting mothers to have deliveries through C-section,” said the doctor.
“Senior gynecologists don’t visit the ward in the evening and in the morning regularly and prefer to sit in their private clinics, leaving the patients at the mercy of junior trainee doctors,” said the doctor.
Around 80 nurses currently work at the MCH Centre in three shifts, who, according to the patients were not sufficient, said the doctor.
“There is a need to double the number of nurses to share the workload,” said the doctor.
Meanwhile, a senior administration said that the MCH Centre lacked financial resources to purchase new surgical equipment.
“They are using outdated surgical equipment and lack money to replace them,” said the official.
An ultrasound machine gifted by the Japanese government is not functioning but the hospital lacks funds to fix it, said the official.
“The heads of the department do not have the authority to take any decision and have to wait for the vice-chancellor’s node for everything, which takes a lot of time,” said the official.
“The MCH Centre is also facing a severe shortage of beds,” said the official adding that most of the time patients have to be adjusted on beds,” said the official.
“It is not safe to ask patients to share beds as in such a situation patients could be exposed to communicable diseases,” said the official.
Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto (SZAB) Medical University Vice-Chancellor Prof Javed Akram said that they were working on an extension project to address all these issues at the MCH Centre.
He said that on an average 50 to 60 deliveries were reported at the centre, of which 12 to 15 deliveries were carried out through C-section.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 6th, 2015.