Seven years after it was opened to meet the healthcare needs of the southern sectors and reduce the burden on the city’s three main hospitals, the 100-bed government hospital at Sector 48, functioning as the south campus of Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH), Sector 32, remains underutilised due to a lack of dedicated doctors, nurses, technical staff and other personnel.
Lab facility and availability of doctors is a must for better healthcare facilities. We are resolving the issues one by one. Parvesh Chauhan, a Sector 50 resident, said, “For minor issues, the dispensary is there but for any serious health issue, we have to visit GMCH-32. Even if we go to the Sector 48 hospital, tests and medicines may not be available, and patients are referred elsewhere. “Several criteria have to be fulfilled to run a 24/7 emergency service, and sufficient manpower is essential. Our main focus at Sector 48 is on treating cancer and psychiatry patients. An ambulance service is also being operated between Sector 48 and GMCH-32 to facilitate access,” he added.
Thus, the facility has neither been able to fulfil its purpose of reducing the burden on the three major healthcare facilities – Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER), Government Multi Specialty and Hospital (GMSH), Sector 16, and GMCH-32 which remain perpetually crowded – nor has it been able to ensure accessible healthcare to residents in surrounding sectors. The four-storey facility, built using ₹ 28 crore of the taxpayers’ money, currently uses only 83 of the 100 beds, of which 41 are in the psychiatry ward and 42 in the radiation oncology department. However, patients have to visit GMCH-32 to collect physical copies of their test reports, causing inconvenience, particularly to senior citizens who find it difficult to access reports online. Sunita Sharma, president of the Sky Lark Association in Sector 47-D, says residents have little information about the services available at the Sector-48 facility. We went to the GMCH-32 emergency, where we were told it was nothing serious and only the dosage needed to be increased. She added that the rush at the GMCH-32 emergency is such that proper investigations are not carried out.
With no sanctioned posts, the facility depends on GMCH staff to provide services as a token arrangement, adding to their already heavy workload. The absence of permanent staff also drives away patients, who, in the absence of clarity on whether they will receive timely treatment, prefer to go to other facilities rather than taking a risk. These are the only two departments offering inpatient services at the hospital. Outpatient department (OPD) services operate on alternate days of the week. Gynaecology, general medicine, general surgery, paediatrics, orthopaedics and urology OPDs are available twice a week, dental services three times a week and dermatology five days a week. The hospital also has a sample collection laboratory and an X-ray facility. With the online system seeing a glitch for the last one month, even the tech-savvy patients are left with no option but to go for physical copies of the report. “Two to three days ago, my child was running a high fever at night. But despite the dosage being raised, the fever did not subside. In the end, we went to a private hospital, where my child was diagnosed with mild pneumonia.
“If emergency services had been made available at the Sector 48 hospital, we wouldn’t have to rush to the already crowded GMCH-32,” Sharma added.
