The Khadki Cantonment Board (KCB) recruited six doctors, including three Casualty Medical Doctors (CMOs), for the first time earlier this month. A full-time pediatrician post, which had been lying vacant for more than three years, was also filled at the Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Cantonment Board Hospital.
Two assistant medical officers (AMOs) were among the six hired. “We have hired six doctors on a contractual basis. The need for more doctors had long been felt due to the rising number of patients at the hospital,” said Amol Jagtap, CEO, KCB.
Located in the busy Khadki Bazar area, Babasaheb hospital has been witnessing a steady rise in emergency cases. It is one of the special cantonment-run hospitals with specialists, two general surgeons, an anesthetist , a radiologist, a pathologist and a general physician. “We had only one CMO and, on some occasions, handling multiple emergency cases was becoming challenging,” said Dr Ranjeet Bhosale, Resident Medical Officer at the hospital, told The Indian Express. Though hospital officials said only 10 per cent of the cases needed real attention, services of Medical officers (MO) were falling inadequate.
With the closest government-run hospital located atleast eight kilometres from the cantonment board limits —Yashwantrao Chavan Memorial Hospital or Sassoon General Hospital — strengthening workforce was inevitable, said board members.
With latest services getting added, the number of beneficiaries has also seen a rise. For instance, the total number of patients admitted to the hospital in November 2016 was 214, which rose to 433 for the same month last year. Similarly, from 11,008 patients in 2016, the out-patient department saw 12,235 patients in the same month last year. The number of operations carried out in the hospital in 2017 rose to 126 as against 106 in 2016. In total, 27 C-section operations were performed in 2017, while 20 were performed in 2016.