Facing flak over its perceived failure to manage things of the biggest hospital of the State, the Government Doon Medical College Hospital (GDMC) Hospital administration has decided to impose entry pass system.

 The medical superintendent (MS) GDMC Dr K K Tamta said while talking to The Pioneer that the hospital has decided to start the entry pass system under which only one person at a time would be allowed to be near the admitted patient. He said that the pass holders would be allowed to meet the patient from 10 am to 11 am and from 4 pm to 5pm.

He further said that entry pass system would be soon implemented. “Once in force, it would solve the problem of overcrowded wards,” he said. Notably, a large number of patients from different parts of the state and some areas of Uttar Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh throng GDMC Hospital daily for treatment.

In the absence of any mechanism to control the number of visitors, it is often found that the wards are over-crammed with people, resulting in brawls and heated exchanges between the visitors and the  hospital staff members. 

In another initiative to ease the extreme patient load on the female wing of GDMC Hospital, the hospital administration has decided to deploy an ambulance to transport the patients from the hospital to the genecology section of the Gandhi Centenary Eye (GCE) Hospital located some distance away in Dalanwala area.

Dr Tamta said that this ambulance would ferry the normal uncomplicated cases to Gandhi Eye Hospital free of cost. The GCE hospital has 150 beds most of which remain vacant while the patient load at the female wing of GDMC is so huge that many  of the admitted patients are forced to lie down in the hospital galleries.  Apart from the gynaecologists, modern labour room and plenty of beds in the wards, the Gandhi Eye Hospital has facility of ultrasound for the pregnancy and other cases while the female wing of GDMC hospital is plagued by acute staff shortage. This hospital has only seven specialist gynaecologists while the hospital needs at least 21 doctors to cater to the huge patient load.

The erstwhile Doon Female Hospital had a sanctioned capacity of 110 beds while it had 21 doctors. But after its merger into the medical college, the numbers of beds had been brought down to 60 to fulfil the MCI guidelines. Accordingly, the number of posts of the doctors had also been sliced to eight. While the capacity of the hospital was reduced the patient inflow in the hospital kept on spiralling in the absence of other affordable health facilities At present, the hospital has 130 beds, but more than 150 patients visit it daily.

Observers say that the huge patient load and unsavoury incidents are expected to come down once shifting patients to GCE Hospital starts.