The lack of adequate number of doctors in the Department of Cardiology at the Government Medical College Hospital, Ernakulam, has forced patients, especially those seeking emergency care, to seek treatment at private hospitals.
Despite the government taking over the hospital from the Cooperative Academy of Professional Education in 2013, the department is yet to have a permanent post of cardiac surgeon. The institution has not been able to undertake complex procedures like bypass surgery owing to the absence of a cardiac surgeon. Presently, there are only three cardiologists in the wing.
“There have been numerous occasions when patients, who were brought to the medical college hospital following heart attack, had to be shifted to other hospitals. The appointments for angiogram and angioplasty get stretched because of poor strength of doctors,” said Dr. N.K. Sanil Kumar of Justice V.R. Krishna Iyer Movement, which had spearheaded the campaign for the government takeover of the medical college hospital from the cooperative sector.
He recalled a recent incident in which a personnel of a construction company involved in a work on the medical college campus had to be shifted to a private hospital in Kochi after he developed chest pain in the night a few days ago. “We hope that the government will speed up the appointment of a cardiac surgeon, besides ensuring the best of facilities for the cardiology wing,” he said.
Senior officials of the hospital said the process of appointing a cardiac surgeon was in its final stages.
