Minister promises to arm Sushruta centre within 7 days

New Delhi, July 20 -- Sushruta Trauma Centre will get all their surgeons in place within a week. AK Walia, Delhi health minister, has asked GB Pant hospital head, Dr Veena Choudhary, head of neurosurgery, Dr Ajay Sharma, and medical superintendent of Lok Nayak Hospital, Dr Richa Diwan, to depute orthopaedic and neurosurgery teams complete with anesthetists and radiologists to Sushruta Trauma Centre at the earliest. The development took place a day after HT reported how junior doctors at Delhi government's biggest trauma facility were being forced to transfer all neurology cases to neighbouring hospitals. "I had several rounds of discussions with our principal secretary (Anshu Prakash) and the heads of Lok Nayak and GB Pant, who are in charge of deputing doctors at Sushruta Trauma Centre, and they have assured me that they will post doctors there within a week," said Dr Walia. "Since a trauma centre gets very typical cases, surgeons don't like to stay there for too long as they feel that this impedes their growth. To sort this issue, we have decided to post doctors at the trauma centre on a three-month rotation basis, so they can keep coming back to super-speciality for their research and study on other cases," he said. Walia said that he would personally ensure that doctors were deputed at the trauma facility at the earliest so patients didn't suffer. For over a year now, the trauma care facility has been functioning without a neurosurgeon. The current vacant positions include three assistant professors, and four senior residency positions in the department of neurosurgery and two in radiology. The centre, which gets an average of 40 critical cases daily, has to transfer one-fourth of them for want of a neurosurgeon. "We understand the problem and we will sort it out. We will not let our citizens die for want of doctors," said Walia.

Published by HT Syndication with permission from Hindustan Times.