S K Suman, an employee with the General Reserve Engineering Force (GREF) met with an accident on 17 January. But he was lucky to be operated well in time. He was rushed to the emergency ward of the Government Medical College (GMC) and was operated within a day. But it is only in case of emergencies that the patients get operated, for all other surgeries they would have to wait for months, even years together to get the date for operation.

Take the case of Ram Prakash Dutta, he had to wait for nearly a month to get the date for operation. One of the attendants with him said, “He has a stone in the gall bladder for which the operation is to be required, however it has taken a month for getting the date.”

Sources said that in the Government Medical College, there is both a lack of operation theatres and the staff, for carrying out surgeries. In the surgery department there are not more than 11 doctors and the entire hospital has only four operation theatres. Administrator of the GMC, Dr Rakesh Khajuria said “The operations are being delayed as there is lesser number of operation theatres. The hospital caters to a population of 50 lakh people and the hospital needs upgradation of infrastructure in a big way. However Government Medical College (GMC) Superintendent, Ramesh Gupta said, “it is only the routine surgeries which are getting delayed. In those cases which are shifted to emergency the operations are carried within 24 hours time.”

... contd.