The government-run autonomous Vijayanagar Institute of Medical Science (VIMS) has requested the private hospital association to allow it to use operation theatre facilities for performing surgeries in emergency cases coming to VIMS.
VIMS director Prabhanjan Kumar has written to the president of the association stating that the OT complex at VIMS is in a dilapidated condition and now considered “not suitable” for conducting surgeries. Hence, he wanted the association to consider the request to allow the use of facilities in private hospitals. Assuring the association of providing human resources, he has asked it to give details of the facilities that would be provided and also the cost for performing surgeries, the letter said.
Very recently, the inner portion of the roof of a major OT on the ground floor at VIMS collapsed. Fortunately, there were no casualties. Since then, surgeons are apprehensive of conducting operations there.
As an alternative, VIMS has decided to make use of facilities at the district hospital. Now, delivery cases from VIMS, including C-sections, are being attended with staff from the two units of obstetrics and gynaecology department posted to the district hospital. Simultaneously, a couple of emergency general surgeries have also being performed.
As beds at the district hospital are very limited, not many cases could be taken up there. Enquiries revealed that around 10-15 deliveries took place at the district hospital daily which had now got doubled after VIMS cases came to be taken up there.
To attend to emergency cases, particularly accident and trauma cases, among other things, VIMS has sought the cooperation of private hospitals and nursing homes.
Meanwhile, the association members are of the view that the letter from the director was not clear and gave room to doubts that need clarification.
“Private hospitals are ready to cooperate by allowing their facilities to be used. But the question is who will perform the surgeries? How can a doctor, outside VIMS, perform the surgery? What about post-operative care, drugs and who will bear the cost as most of the patients coming to VIMS are from the poor economic background,” a senior surgeon, who runs a private hospital, on the condition of anonymity, told The Hindu .
VIMS, which is the only government-run teaching hospital in Hyderabad Karnataka, contemplating making use of the facilities in private hospitals, only goes to show the government’s utter neglect of the premier medical institution.
The institution is headed by an in-charge director and the government needs to take a serious view of the sorry state of affairs and act swiftly to set them right before any other major untoward incident occurs.
