CM visits GTB Hospital, notes dearth of pharmacy counters

NEW DELHI: Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday, after a surprise visit to the Guru Tegh Bahadur Hospital (GTBH) here, said that there was a shortage of pharmacists and ultrasound machines at the hospital.

"There were patients standing in line the whole day who did not get medicines and had to come back. We have to solve this issue soon," Kejriwal told reporters outside the hospital.

The CM inspected the Pharmacy, Emergency Ward, General Ward, Paediatrics Ward and Ultrasound department of the hospital and met attendants and patients.

He directed Delhi Health minister Satyendar Jain to look into and resolved the shortage of ultrasound machines in the hospital.

Kejriwal ordered the Chief Secretary Anshu Prakash to take up the make sure that vacant posts of pharmacists are filled up within the next 10 days, so that waiting time at the pharmacy counters is not more than 15 minutes.

He also directed Prakash to have more pharmacy counters at the hospital.

"Made a surprise visit of GTB hospital wid Health Min, CS n Health Secy. Long queues at pharmacy. Need to increase no of counters n pharmacists. Shortage of ultrasound machines. Personally spoke to many patients. People satisfied wid availability of medicines," Kejriwal tweeted on Thursday.

A pressing issue that patients brought to Kejriwal's notice was that doctors were giving long dates for surgeries and operations, with some being given dates as late as three months.

The CM said this was unacceptable as the Delhi government has already launched a scheme wherein if a patient is given an operation date of later than a month, the patient will be referred to a private hospital and all expenses will be borne by the Delhi government.

He directed Jain and Prakash to organise training for doctors to creating awareness about the scheme.

The CM also noted that there was a noticeable lack of awareness among patients in government hospitals.

Once in the OPD, many patients did not know where to go, which doctor to refer to for treatment, etc.

To plug this information gap, Kejriwal felt that there was a need to appoint volunteers to guide patients.

In the last three years, Delhi government hospitals have seen major improvements, so much so that patients from neighbouring states are queuing up.

"Nearly 70 per cent of the patients were from outside Delhi, who were referred to Delhi government hospitals for better treatments," said a senior official at GTBH.