Hospital ward shuts for lack of doctors

MUMBAI: The children's ward at civic-run V N Desai Hospital in Santa Cruz (E) has been shut for the last three weeks owing to a shortage of resident doctors. However, this is not the first time this has happened, said hospital officials.
No resident doctor is willing to join the hospital as the paediatrics department has none of the recognised post-graduate courses, said sources.
Hospital superintendent Shashikant Wadekar admitted to the problem. "There is only one doctor who is attached to the children's ward, but it is not enough for us to start admitting patients,'' he said. The advertisements by the BMC calling doctors to join the hospital have yielded no results so far.
The hospital also has a seven-bed neo-natal intensive care unit, but that too does not have a single doctor.