Absenteeism leads to 3 doctor suspensions at Doon Medical College

Dehradun: The long-serving criticism faced by the premier government-run facility, Government Doon Medical College (GDMC), of deteriorating medical services, has resulted in the termination of the services of three doctors absconding from duty without providing any prior information to the college hospital.

The three terminated doctors include; Senior Resident (SR) Surgery, Dr. Udai Baluni and Junior Residents (JR) Dr. Gopal, Paediatrics, and Dr. Ankit, ENT.

Dr. Pradip Bharati, Principal was forced to take the action after the three failed to come up with an explanation for their absenteeism for a long duration.

Dr. Gupta after having terminated their services said that the action had been taken as part of the effort being made to better facilities for the thousands that visited the facility for treatment.

Speaking about the two ventilators of the sick Neonatal Care Unit (SNCU), female wing, he said that the machines would soon be in working condition, as repairs were underway. These machines, installed in 2011 with a five-year warranty, developed a fault in November 2016, a month before the end of the five- year contract.

Despite the hospital intimating the company, the fault continues to remain as the company has done nothing to get them into a working state. The Medical College administration has now warned the company to either repair these machines or face action. The Principal said that the engineers of Medion AG would soon visit the hospital for conducting repairs.In absence of machine repair, SNCU ward of the hospital is functioning on just one ventilator.

The Principal further informed that the mortuary freezer repairs have been completed. Guard recruitments for the hospital have also been completed recently and now every OPD would be manned by one of them. The head of the department of Psychiatry, Colonel Dr. JS Rana (Rtd) would now head the entire security arrangement of the hospital.

The corrective stern action was long overdue, state observers. “The GDMC administration despite facing flak over the crumbling medical service of the largest hospital of the state kept dragging its feet for some unknown reasons. They finally acted after being prodded by the secretary health Nitesh Jha who visited the hospital recently and directed the authorities to improve things without any further delay,” they told the Pioneer. The principal's efforts to improve the place have begun to show results.