Work at NCP hospitals grind to a halt

Hospitals in the North Central Province are currently facing a severe dearth of human resources which has badly affected their efficient running.

" I have no medical officers nor a full cadre of nursing staff and minor employees Director of a leading hospital in the NCP, Anuradhapura Teaching Hospital, Dr A. Atapattu, told the Sunday Observer in a telephone interview."

We need around 100 medical officers to run this huge hospital complex efficiently which caters to normal patients as well as thousands of kidney patients from all parts of the NCP.

More manpower is our most urgent need at present", he reiterated.

Director Administration, Nursing Unit, Health Ministry said that a cadre of 1290 nurses had been approved by the Unit, but only 800 people are working there at present. Drector, Administration Rahuman was unavailable for comments.Government Medical Officers Association (GMOA) representative for the district, Dr Chinthaka Wijewardene said, " In general, hospitals in the entire district face a similar crisis.

The worst affected are the two base hospitals at Tambettugama and Padaviya. Padaviya is the worst hit now, due to the addition of newly established units - Maternal, Paediatrics, Surgical, Medical Gynaecology and Obstetrics for which we require 50 doctors. We only have 12. The DMO and other consultants of the hospital have requested to GMOA to facilitate the recruitment of 25 more doctors. If this is done at peripheral level, we can reduce the case load of patients going to the main Teaching Hospital at Anuradhapura."

He said over 2,000 patients attended the OPD clinics per month while 50 patients sought dialysis treatment every month for chronic kidney ailments now on a sharp rise in the NCP. " These dialysis units require highly trained doctors and nursing staff which are woefully lacking in the district", he said.

- CA