Nod to 819 new posts of doctors at Chandigarh’s PGIMER

The standing finance committee (SFC) of the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) has approved ₹120-crore annual expenses for creation of 819 new posts of doctors.

The panel, chaired by the Union health ministry secretary, met in New Delhi on Wednesday.

The agenda will now be taken up in the governing body of the institute on June 28. If approved, creation of new posts will result in better patient care services by reducing workload of doctors.

“The SFC has approved ₹120-crore annual expenses for creation new posts of doctors, that include 261 faculty, 271 senior residents and demonstrators and 287 junior residents,” said PGIMER director Dr Jagat Ram.

In the PGIMER’s emergency, there is 200% bed occupancy. The patient rush at the emergency OPD has increased from 18,000 in 1982 to 1.32 lakh in 2017.

A recent study conducted by the PGIMER has found that 90% of its doctors are stressed, of which 67% cited long working hours as the trigger.

There has been a shortage of anaesthesiologists as well, because of which waiting time for many elective surgeries is as long as five months.

“Creation of new posts is the immediate need of the PGIMER, which is overburdened because of excessive patient load. While the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in New Delhi has a similar workload, it have nearly double the number of doctors,” said Dr Jagat Ram, director, PGIMER.

The institute has around 500 faculty posts. As many as 261 new posts have been proposed, for which ₹50.26 crore were sought. An annual sanction of ₹31 crore for 234 posts of senior residents, 30 senior demonstrators and seven junior demonstrators was also cleared in the meeting besides ₹28 crore for 287 junior residents.

Rs 485 crore for geriatrics centre

The committed has also given in principle approval for setting up a geriatrics centre, which will cost ₹485 crore.

The PGIMER has been planning to set up a 250-bed geriatrics centre with an aim to provide better and integrated health care services to senior citizens under one roof. The proposal was made by a team of doctors from the internal medicine department.

Queue management in new OPD to bring respite to patients

One of the relatively smaller agenda that got the nod at the standing finance committee meeting of the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) will bring much respite to thousands of patients visiting the new out-patient department (OPD).

The committee has approved ₹3.2 crore for queue management at the new OPD. Once implemented, it will benefit patients who have to stand in long queues outside doctors’ rooms awaiting their turn .

The new OPD was inaugurated in 2001 to cater to 3,500 patients per day. The number has increased to 9,000, but nothing much was done to manage the patient load.

Not knowing when their turn will come, patients continue to bang doors of doctors’ rooms. At times, they keep standing outside the room throughout the day without taking any break, fearing they might miss their turn. Doctors, too, are inconvenienced as they have to come out or ask someone to announce the next patient’s name.

Under the queue management project, digital display boards will be put outside doctors’ rooms. There will be digital call pads with doctors to display the next patient’s number when pressed.

The system is already in place in two departments and will now be extended to the entire OPD. Senior officials have earlier claimed that they would make the system operational within three months of getting the committees’ nod.