ICU remains non-functional, operations delayed as hospital struggles to ease patient load
MULTAN:
Nishtar-II Hospital in Multan, established to reduce the growing patient burden at Nishtar Hospital-I, is yet to achieve its primary target due to severe shortage of administrative and medical staff, sources revealed.
According to hospital insiders, Nishtar-II has been facing a persistent human resource crisis since its inception. As a result, its Intensive Care Unit (ICU) remains non-operational till date, forcing critically ill patients to be shifted to other hospitals located several kilometers away. The situation has also affected surgical services, with patients given long waiting dates for operations.
Sources attribute the delay mainly to an acute shortage of doctors and technical staff in the anesthesia department. The hospital currently has six operating tables, but it has become a major challenge for the administration to run them simultaneously. Due to staffing constraints, only three to four operating tables are functional in the morning shift, while the situation worsens further in the evening and night shifts, where only gynecological and emergency surgeries are performed.
Internal sources further claimed that several doctors at Nishtar-II give limited time to the hospital while prioritizing private practice, which has a negative impact on public health services.
Another serious issue has emerged regarding operating room (OT) staff. Sources revealed that not a single OT assistant has been formally recruited in the hospital. To fill the gap, employees employed under the on-call staff are assigned duties as OT assistants.
It is learned that most of these assistants are officially designated as janitors and are paid equivalent to sanitation workers, despite performing highly sensitive and technical tasks. Experts warn that this practice not only violates service rules, but also contradicts medical and legal standards, posing potential risks to patient safety.
Official notices sent by the Department of Anesthesia and ICU have requested immediate recruitment for dozens of vacant posts to ensure the delivery of basic health services. Documents reveal that to run 10 operating theaters (six elective and four emergency), the hospital requires at least 18 senior anesthesia registrars, 18 male or female doctors, nine surgical technologists, nine anesthesia technologists, nine senior nurses, 36 senior nurses, 18 junior technicians, 18 doctors. technicians (anaesthesia), along with sweepers and stretcher bearers.
Similarly, to operationalize a 50-bed intensive care unit and other departments, the hospital needs a professor of anesthesia/intensive care, five associate professors, 10 assistant professors, 20 senior registrars in anesthesia, 20 in medicine, 35 doctors, five head nurses, 50 additional physiotherapists, nurses, physiotherapists and support nurses. including department officers and security personnel.
Health workers and residents have urged the Punjab Health Department to immediately address the staffing crisis by recruiting doctors, anesthesia specialists, nursing and technical staff. They emphasized that timely action is essential for Nishtar-II to function fully and effectively reduce the burden on Nishtar Hospital-I.
