Medical College and Hospital has about a dozen of them and about 10 serve Calcutta National Medical College and Hospital. The number at NRS Medical College and Hospital is a mere eight, while a lone house staff slogs away at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital. Shocking, but such is the condition of one of the most vital sections of the state hospitals ? the surgery ward.

Worse, the house staff count does not increase much in wards such as gynaecology, orthopaedics and paediatrics in the hospitals.

With the quota for resident medical officers in postgraduate courses and for posts of basic teachers set for abolition, junior doctors are increasingly finding house staff jobs a waste of time.

Those taking up house staff work are increasingly opting for departments like skin and community medicine. For the majority, however, house staff jobs are a no-no. They want to concentrate full-time on the postgraduate entrance examinations.

The result: the authorities are struggling to fill up vacant house staff positions.

At RG Kar, head of the surgery department Dilip Chakrabarty has shot off a letter to the mandarins, stating that unless more house staff is provided, it will be difficult to keep the department functional.

?The shortage of house staff is, indeed, a problem. You can?t really do much if the house staff keep shunning departments where the workload is more compared with others,? admitted Pradip Mitra, vice-principal of the college. He added that a scheme to fill the vacant posts has been worked out.

Rattled by the crisis, the college committee of RG Kar conducted an emergency meeting a few days ago to ensure that those in need of emergency operations were not turned away. At NRS, however, the authorities are actually asking patients to approach other hospitals.

Besides the shortage of house staff in almost all important departments, the breakdown of the four machines at the hospital?s dialysis unit has hit the hospital hard. And as if this was not enough, the C-Arm, a sophisticated machine that helps doctors during temporary and permanent pacemaker implants, in the cardiology department has stopped working.

?Things are difficult at the moment. We are referring those in need of pacemaker implants to SSKM,? stated Dilip Kumar Jha, deputy superintendent of NRS.

An overwhelming majority of the junior doctors feel that the impetus to work for state-run hospitals is not there due to lack of job satisfaction.

?For two days a week, we have to work for around 24 hours. If you are attached to departments like surgery and gynaecology, you have to do operating theatre duty as well. On good days, we have to work around 10-12 hours. When do we find the time to study?? asks a house staff of Medical College and Hospital.