City govt hosps flooded with cases from dists

The doctors at government hospitals here blame it on lack of staff and specialists while attending to emergency cases, which leads to complications during surgeries.

Every month, more than 15 cases are being attended at each government hospital in the city, which includes paediatric and adult cases. There are about 10 accident and trauma cases attended by the government hospitals here, while there are at least 15 incorrect surgeries that are later referred to the hospitals in Chennai that are better equipped after an initial surgery is attended by a hospital in the districts.

“Usually one or two surgeons are appointed in government hospitals in suburban and non-district headquarter government hospitals. In case of urgent surgery, lack of staff leads to complications and doctors refer the patient to district headquarter government hospitals in the city,” said Dr P Vasanthamani, the dean of Kilpauk Medical College.

Across Tamil Nadu, there are only about 1,000 specialist paediatric surgeons, and more than 25,000 surgeries are being done in the State every year. However, sources said, majority of them are being done at the Institute of Child Health (ICH), Chennai, the premier paediatric institute in the State.

“More than 20,000 surgeries are being performed at the ICH itself due to more number of referral cases, as adequate number of paediatric surgeons are not available at most of the government hospitals elsewhere,” said Dr Jeyachandran, assistant director at Institute of Child Health.

Not just government hospitals, but a large number of private hospitals also refer incorrect surgery cases to government hospitals. “The cost of surgeries at government hospitals is high and corrective surgeries are unaffordable by the patients. Thus, the cases are referred to government hospitals only last,” said Dr G Ravindranath, secretary, Doctors Association ofSocial Equality.