Jayanagar General Hospital in dire need of proper treatment

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: Jayanagar General Hospital, which is one of the major government hospitals of the city, is suffering from a shortage of doctors and nurses, and patients have complained that they are not getting quality treatment.

Without a radiologist, the scanning service has stopped and the needy patients have to resort to visiting other hospitals. Earlier, there were 12 chief medical officers (CMOs) in the hospital. At present, only eight people are performing duty.

Three have retired and one has been transferred. There is a shortage of about 15 nurses. At present there are three nurses working in each ward. A senior doctor says that quality treatment is not being provided due to this.

He says that he has drawn the government's attention to this issue many times but to no avail. As many as 350-400 patients are treated daily in the Out Patient Department (OPD) of the hospital.

At least 15 to 20 people are admitted to the inpatient department. At least 60-70 of these patients are pregnant women and the elderly. After conception, pregnant women have to undergo scanning at least three or four times.

A board has been installed stating that the service is not available due to shortage of radiologists. Thus, a consultation slip is being written to Victoria Hospital. In Victoria too, on most days, the number of patients is high and the wait is for hours.

If you want to scan privately, you have to pay Rs 1,000 to Rs 4,000. This burdens the poor and alcoholic patients. Old people are wandering to the hospital daily to get their age verification certificate.

To add to the confusion, rumours of a cold war between different doctors here are doing the rounds.