Elective surgeries pile up at private hosps as doctors cease work for second day
Times of India | 16 October 2024OPDs remained shut across four units of Manipal Hospitals and the closure will continue till Wednesday. Both surgeries and admissions have dropped sharply. “On an average, we conduct around 2,000 elective surgeries a month across our units. It has gone down by 35% due to the festive season and doctors’ unrest. We have done around 1,300 surgeries in last one month,” said a Manipal representative.
At Desun Hospital, over 45 scheduled surgeries, including cardiac and general surgeries and over 500 planned OPD consultations have been postponed by two days. “Our non-essential OPD services are closed till Oct 15. Over 20 critical procedures and surgeries have still been performed in last 24 hours. Now, we have over 500 patients admitted and we are providing all in-patient services. Our emergency department continues to operate 24x7, with specialists on duty,” said Shaoli Dutta, director, Desun Hospital.
At Peerless Hospital, OPD attendance dropped below 100 for second day. On a normal day, the hospital receives around 1,000 OPD patients. “While a drop in footfalls is normal at this time, the cease-work has contributed to it. We are trying to make sure that every patient who visits OPD is attended to. But our surgeries are going on as scheduled,” said CEO Sudipta Mitra. He added that they will not operate its OPD on Wednesday for Lakshmi puja.
B P Poddar Hospital saw a drop in surgeries compared to corresponding period last year. Some ‘cold’ surgeries have been deferred. “In OPD, non-emergency patient footfall generally remains low during and after puja. Many doctors are on leave and we have charted out a meticulous OPD plan across specialties to ensure that no patient misses out on doctor consultation. We have requested some doctors to extend OPD timings to accommodate all patients. In case of unavailability of an OPD doctor, we arranged their consultation with IPD consultants,” said Supriyo Chakrabarty, group advisor of BP Poddar. They saw a mere 17 surgeries during puja days, a drop from last year’s 28.
Procedures, surgeries have dropped from 70-75 per day to around 12-13 now. “Across all OTs and cathlabs, around 15% of usual surgeries have been done in last few days. While we have not deferred any, cases reporting for procedures have dropped,” said Narayana Hospitals COO R Venkatesh.
All OPDs remained shut at BM Birla Heart Hospital and CMRI Hospital on Tuesday, though planned surgeries were conducted. “We plan to resume normal OPD functions on Wednesday,” said CMRI pulmonology director Raja Dhar.
ILS Hospitals have postponed a ‘good number of elective surgeries with consent from patient parties’ over last few days, across all units, said senior VP Debashis Dhar.
