Many dub evening OPD as ‘futile exercise’

<div class="section1"><div class="Normal"><span style="" font-family:="" times="" new="" roman="" class="author">SOURAV SANYAL</span><br />CHANDIGARH: PGI director Prof S K Sharma dubs it as an "experiment" which "may or may not succeed". Resident doctors are more than sure that the ‘experiment’ will miserably fail if the illprepared PGI in a bid to honour Union health minister Shatrughan Sinha’s announcement decides to tow the line.<br />The pertinent question that arises is who would ultimately be at a loss? Will the unsuspecting patients, who look up to PGI as godsend, be able to receive quality healthcare at the evening OPD? Or will they just have to be content to double up as guinea pigs in the evening OPD laboratory as the director monitors how the experiment works out? <br />Who is to take the blame in case of a mishap? Prof Sharma is visibly on the defensive when faced with such questions."We are committed to provide quality healthcare to the patients and so we have regular OPD running in the morning. We advise only those patients to come in the evening, who otherwise cannot afford to come in the morning. Evening OPD is an experiment to be monitored closely and if need be we would request the government for additional faculty and senior residents or general medical officers," he told Times News Network.<br />Asked as to who takes the responsibility if the "over stressed" and "over worked" resident doctors, who are supposed to be running the evening OPD, are not able to treat the patient properly leading to a mishap, Prof Sharma in the presence of Union health secretary S K Naik on Friday, said that since PGI runs a 24-hour emergency critical cases could always be referred there. <br />"This is absurd. If the residents, who already put in about 15-18 hours per day, are unable to diagnose the patient’s condition, then anytime a mishap can occur. Isn’t prevention better than cure," argue resident doctors.<br />Whatever be the outcome, patients would be the worst hit by the deadlock between the resident doctors and the PGI administration. The latter is not vocal enough to get their point across to the minister that it would be virtually impossible to run the evening OPD with the existing staff strength.<br />Senior professors add another twist to the tale. They say that as PGI has to finally depend on the ministry for revision of budgetary allocation and bringing about academic and administrative changes, the administration "cannot afford" to defy the minister’s directive. <br />"On paper, evening OPD would be functional. Who cares if patients suffer? Their suffering is not going to reach the minister after all," says a senior faculty member.<br />Emeritus professor Dr J G Jolly and former director Prof B N S Walia too dub the evening OPD as a "futile exercise". "True," say resident doctors, adding, "If we are unable to perform even the basic investigations like X-ray, blood test or urine on the same day, of what help would the evening OPD be? Patients, most of whom come down from elsewhere, will find it difficult to arrange for a place to stay at night in this unknown city."<br /><span style="" font-weight:="" bold="">What evening OPD means to PGI</span><br />Dr B L Talwar, former PGI professor, says evening OPD will open floodgates, adversely affecting in-patient care, elective surgery, emergency and intensive care. The high standard of teaching and research will decline. Faculty and resident positions will no longer attract the top talent in the country. In short, PGI will be reduced to a position of an average medical college providing only secondary level of patient care. </div> </div>