Suhail Bhat
SRINAGAR, May 25: The COVID patients across the Valley are receiving treatment from junior doctors as Senior Consultants allegedly refrain from visiting the wards for fear of catching the infection.
After receiving several complaints from the patients regarding the absence of Senior Doctors from the COVID wards, the administration has asked all the leading government hospitals of the Valley – Government Medical College Srinagar, Anantnag and Baramulla and SKIMS-MCH Bemina – to come up with a factual report.
“Certain sections of the media have reported the indolence of senior faculty/ consultants of your institutions from their legitimate duties which have created anguish and resentment among the public. It has also been reported that senior faculty/ consultants don’t usually visit and examine COVID patients. You are requested to furnish a factual report in this regard, besides duty roster of senior faculty consultants be shared with this office on fortnightly basis,” an order issued by Divisional Commissioner Kashmir, Pandurang. K. Pole stated.
A case in point, at SKIMS Medical Colleges Bemina Prof Mubarik Naqash HoD Medicine and Javed Malik, HoD Chest Medicine who would hardly see patients in the hospital. As per the roster, issued by the hospital before the order, Prof Mubarik Naqash had seen no patients in the first 17-days of this month, while Professor Javed Malik had seen patients only once on 6-5-2021.
After the order, the hospital changed the roster, but there has been no improvement in the duty roster and the hospital has introduced on-call advice to cover poor performers.
As per the new roaster, in the first week (17-5-2021 to 23-05-2021), both Prof Naqash and Javed Malik have seen patients once on 17th May and 20th May, respectively. However, for the second week (23nd May -30th May) both of them will not visit wards and will be available only on call once a week.
In the third week, Prof Naqash will see patients once on 31-05-2021, while Professor Javed Malik will be available only on call. In the fourth week, Professor Naqash will be unavailable while Javed Malik will be available only on call. On the last week from 13- 06-2021 to 18-06-2021, both of them will be available only on call.
The performance of other doctors is also bad. For example, Reyaz Malik will see patients only once in five weeks on 18-05-202. Mir Elyas will see patients twice in five weeks on 19-05-2021 and 16-06-2021. Both Manzoor Ahmad and Abdul Ahad will see patients thrice in five weeks.
A few senior doctors who did not want to be named told Excelsior that they have been working diligently since last year. “The wards are being run under the supervision of senior consultants. The junior doctors who are present on duty decide only after consultations with senior doctors. Besides, Senior Residents conduct two-three rounds in a day,” a senior doctor working at SMHS said, adding that there are around 20-senior consultants who perform their duties in COVID wards.
Another doctor said the administration is making them scapegoats to hide its failures. “There has been a 70% reduction in the quota of oxygen cylinders in our hospital and people are fighting over cylinders every day. Is anyone talking about it? The administration should focus on improving the infrastructure and leave the patient care to us,” a doctor said.
Meanwhile, the administration has asked the hospitals to counter the fake narrative. “You are also advised to put a mechanism to counter the fake narrative/ caustic content if any, circulating in the media,” the order stated.
Follow our WhatsApp channel
