SUBHASH MISHRA
Dhanbad Sept 3: The district administration on Saturday held a meeting with authorities of Shahid Nirmal Mahto Medical College Hospital (SNMMCH) for renovation and reconstruction of the institution’s infrastructure.
The meeting was convened on the directive of the state health department in which deputy commissioner (DC) Sandip Singh reviewed the problems of building, scarcity of beds, and different wards of the hospital along with principal Dr Jyoti Ranjan Prasad and superintendent Dr AK Barnwal.
The district admin also discussed the improvement of the newly built Cath Lab, super speciality ward, and PG Block and chalked out steps on how to provide the best possible treatment facilities to patients that are increasing day by day.
Due to deficiencies of faculty members in different departments and incomplete infrastructure as per guidelines of the National Medical Commission, MBBS seat enhancement of SNMMCH is held up for the last five years.
While four medical colleges of the state including three newly formed Dumka, Hazaribagh and Palamu have permission for 100 MBBS seats, SNMMCH Dhanbad has only 50 MBBS seats.
In 2013, the then Medical Council of India (MCI) had increased 100 MBBS seats (from 50) of the then Patliputra Medical College Hospital (PMCH). But in 2016-17, academic session seats were again reduced to 50 owing to deficiencies of teachers and infrastructures as per guidelines of medical colleges monitoring body of the country.
Besides the deputy commissioner, the principal and superintendent also held meetings with all faculty heads of the medical college to take stock of the problems they are facing.
Deputy development commissioner (DDC) Shashi Prakash Singh, ADM Nand Kishore Gupta, the senior officer of PWD, electric department and Dhanbad Municipal Corporation were also present at the meeting.
The sources said the health department took serious note of the report of patients being kept in corridors of the hospital due to overcrowding in wards.
