Undeterred by staff crunch, NRS Medical College & Hosp conducts atleast 500 pediatric surgeries

Kolkata: Despite acute staff crunch triggered by the growing number of Covid cases, the NRS Medical College and Hospital has managed to perform nearly 500 pediatric surgeries till the end of July from March 22.

Out of the total surgeries carried out by the pediatric surgery department of the hospital, around 256 surgeries were conducted on neonatal infants. The number would have gone up if the situation had been normal.

One postdoctoral trainee has been working out of 18. One operation theater (OT) staff, three nurses and three patients at the pediatric surgery department have been infected with Covid. Around 80 patients have currently been undergoing treatment at the department. Most of these patients are yet to take Covid tests. The doctors at the hospital are extra cautious about the patients who are undergoing a surgery during the Covid situation.

NRS had to cater to a large number of patients many of whom had critical ailments and required an emergency operation.

The doctors, nurses and other health workers of the department had faced difficulties to meet the extra rush of patients caused during the prolonged lockdown especially after the Calcutta Medical College and Hospital was announced as Covid dedicated hospital.

It may be mentioned here that the NRS Hospital authorities have sent a proposal to the health department to set up a full-fledged surgical SNCU the approval of which is being awaited due to the COVID situation. If the state government approves the proposal, the pediatric department of the hospital would get the state's first surgical SNCU where there would be more full time doctors round the clock. The department would also get a dedicated set of general duty doctors, medical officers, nurses.

Dedicated ventilator facilities would also be available at the proposed unit. Due to Covid pandemic the project is getting delayed. Once the dedicated SNCU is made operational at the department the infant mortality will further go down, said Prof Dr Kaushik Saha, head of the pediatric surgery department.