Hosps brace for Mon admission influx after partial stir rollback
Times of India | 23 September 2024
Kolkata: Even as the junior doctors returned to work in emergency departments much to the relief of hospital administrators, the pressure of attending to indoor patients continues to rest solely on senior doctors and faculty members. Till the junior doctors resume work on full scale, hospitals will continue to maintain duty roster of senior doctors who have been working for extended hours for the past 44 days.
Even as patient count had dropped drastically post Aug 9 as junior doctors sat on cease-work, OPD patient count is either normal or near normal for about two weeks now.Monday being one of the busiest days as far as patient count is concerned, hospitals expect further surge in OPD patient count.
Sources in different medical colleges said senior doctors have streamlined OPD services well. But the bigger challenge is managing admitted patients in wards. Due to this, the admission rate in hospitals at present is still down by 30% to 40% from normal admission rate.
“OPD patient count is more or less normal for about two weeks. We will continue to maintain the old duty roster for seniors till the resident doctors resume full-fledged duty,” said an administrator at Medical College Hospital Kolkata.
At IPGMER, which sees the biggest OPD footfall among the medical colleges in the city, the OPD patient count is already normal. But admission rate is down by around 30%. On an average, the hospital would admit around 500 patients a day from either the OPD or emergency. Now, it is admitting between 300 and 350 a day.
“Till the juniors resume duty, pressure for managing patients in the ward will continue to be on the seniors. But at times some junior doctors are working in departments unofficially to give a break to seniors. However, that does not equal their full presence,” said an administrator at IPGMER.
Administrators at Calcutta National Medical College and NRS Medical College said some junior doctors are already helping their seniors in the ward also on their own. “It is a huge relief that junior doctors have resumed work at least in the emergency. But the few scheduled surgeries will continue to stagger till they resume OPD as well IPD services,” said an official at CNMC.
After resuming emergency duty on Saturday, some junior doctors have started participating in emergency surgeries. Some are also tending to patients at ICUs.