GMERS fails to take burden off SSG Hospital

VADODARA: Manjula Chawda (56) of Harinagar area was rushed to GMERS Hospital at Gotri after she sustained a head injury in an accident at Gotri Road on Thursday. Much to the discomfort of the family, Chawda was immediately referred to SSG Hospital without administering first-aid.
GMERS General Hospital at Gotri might have the entire infrastructure ready but their hands seem to be tied while handling accident cases.In 2012, GMERS declared in a letter to the commissioner of police that they are set to handle emergency cases but many cases are still being referred to SSG Hospital.
During October, 45 accident cases ranging from critical cases to superficial wounds were referred to SSG. Doctors at SSG complain that GMERS was established with an aim to reduce their burden but has failed so far.
"At SSG, we handle cases from various places including surrounding districts and even bordering states. With GMERS coming up we were expecting that the cases from western parts of the city and Padra along with surrounding areas will be handled there. But there are many cases that are still transferred here," said a doctor at the department of emergency medicine at the SSG Hospital.
However, authorities at GMERS say that the absence of resident doctors is responsible for the situation. This may be the case till the first batch of MBBS students pass out from the college in 2016. "During the night shifts the resident doctor strength is important. GMERS will have its first batch of MBBS graduates in 2016. Until then, we are trying to manage as many cases as possible," said an official from the GMERS hospital.
"We received our permit of performing postmortems only recently. Patients who were brought dead or seemed critical were transferred to SSG. Also, we do not perform CT scans and head injury survivors are also transferred to SSG. The proposals have already been presented to the state health department and the purchases of these machines are under process," the official added.
"We understand that it takes time for a hospital to settle. GMERS is a new institution which will gradually be able to provide an all-round tertiary care to patients. SSG is duty-bound to attend to patients it receives and we shall continue to provide the service irrespective of how they reach here," said SSG Hospital medical superintendent Rajiv Daveshwar.