Vijayawada: The Government General Hospital, Vijayawada is surviving, with a single ventilator. The situation is so dire that even experienced doctors and specialists are serving patients in general wards rather than their own departments due to unavailability of working infrastructure.
Not counting vacancies in various departments, the new general hospital has six units in the general medicine department, with 55 doctors, including professors, assistant professors, senior residents and house surgeons.
Of these, 10 are specialists in nephrology, urology and other branches of medicine.
Doctors who completed their PG in surgery are also working in the general medicine department, and are referring the patients to other hospitals due to lack of infrastructure in the GGH.
A nephrologist said, “Patients coming to government hospitals are poor and they come here only after the disease has become a threat to their life. As a nephrologist, I am able to perform even simple surgeries like removing kidney stones since we have no machines to test if the patient indeed suffers from the problem. We depend on reports from tests conducted outside. Based on these reports, we are asking the patients to go to a hospital that fits their budget and save their lives.”
Another doctor said, “The machinery in the labs here does not work. There is not even oxygen available for the patients.”
Another specialist said that their skills are being dulled over time since they are not put to use. She said, “As surgeons, we need precision to open a body. Even minor errors may cost a life. Sitting idle here, unable to perform surgeries does not help.”
