Elective surgeries at OGH dept. to resume this week

Elective surgeries in the Surgical Gastroenterology department of Osmania General Hospital (OGH) are set to resume after a hiatus of over a month. The non-emergency surgeries in the departments of General Surgery and Orthopaedics will resume next week.

The elective surgeries such as removal of tumours from stomach or chest under the three departments were not being performed since the third week of July. Operation theatres in the OGH’s in-patient (IP) block where the surgeries were performed were closed when rainwater flooded the block on July 15.

After that, patients were shifted to Quli Qutb Shah block. Though emergency surgeries under the three departments were performed in operation theatres in out-patient block, the elective surgeries were kept on hold. The issue was published in these columns on August 19.

Junior doctors of the hospital represented the issue to senior officials in the Health department, and superintendent of the hospital B. Nagender. Since the Gandhi Hospital has been converted into an exclusive COVID-19 hospital, people are dependent on OGH for the elective surgeries.

Director of Medical Education K Ramesh Reddy said they will make space for three to four more operation theatres in Quli Qutb Shah block of the hospital to take up the surgeries.

Dr Nagender confirmed that the elective surgeries under Surgical Gastroenterology department will resume this week. “Elective surgeries in the other two departments will start from next week,” he said.