SUBHASH MISHRA
Dhanbad, May 11: Manpower starved lab of Shahid Nirmal Mahto Medical College Hospital (SNMMCH) Dhanbad has stopped the Covid samples’ test of three districts Giridih, Deoghar and Jamtara.
Sources in the medical college said that the decision has been taken in the wake of f massive backlog of samples (over 12,000) in the lab while the testing ratio has gone down to an all-time low in a lack of proper resources.
Covid sample test of six districts Bokaro, Giridih, Deoghar, Godda, Jamtara and Dhanbad is conducted at SNMMCH with the installation of RTPCR machine in 2020 after Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Medical College Hospital, Jamshedpur. Now, the Bokaro district conducts the tests on its own.
As per the official record, over 600 samples are being tested every day in the RTPCR lab of Dhanbad medical college but the inflow of samples from the other five districts is over 2000 per day. This resulted in over 12,366 samples being stored for testing.
The crisis appeared on March 31 when all outsourcing staff were removed from the job. Over 60 outsourcing staff were appointed in the lab during the first wave of the Corona pandemic in 2020 and were imparted proper training for conducting the test.
A senior official of the state health department today admitted that SNMMCH lab is facing a manpower crisis.
“Keeping this in mind, the health department has decided to conduct sample tests of three districts including Giridih, Jamtara and Deoghar at Rajendra Institute of Medical Science (RIMS) Ranchi so that the load of Dhanbad lab could be reduced,” said the official requesting anonymity.
Interestingly, all the retrenched outsourcing paramedical staff of Jharkhand are going to Bihar where the government has called for large scale appointments.
The first examination for the appointment was held on May 4 and the second lot is being recruited today (May 11).
“We (Jharkhand) imparted training to them for conducting tests and Bihar lab would take advantage of it,” said the health department official.
