Sri Krishna Medical College and Hospital. Telegraph picture

• Santosh Kumar (35) of Suhagpur village under Paroo block is writhing in pain. His right leg is fractured but there was none to operate and plaster the broken leg.

• Kapila Devi (32) of Roshanpur village under Bochahan block is suffering from abdominal pain and admitted in the gynaecology ward. Though she has been advised to undergo CT scan of the abdomen but the hospital authorities have turned a deaf ear as the scan machine has been dysfunctional.

• Sudharshan Mahto (55) of Kudhani block is anxiously awaiting surgery on his fractured leg.

These are only a few instances of the plight of the 900-odd patients lying unattended at Sri Krishna Medical College and Hospital (SKMCH).

Healthcare at SKMCH, a premier medical hub in north Bihar, has gone haywire, thanks to the lackadaisical attitude of the health department, which has turned a blind eye towards the shortage of doctors.

Acute dearth of doctors at SKMCH has seriously affected its functioning and the emergency services as well.

The superintendent of the hospital, Dr G.K. Thakur, told The Telegraph that he has sent an SOS to the state government for filling up a total of 48 vacant posts of doctors immediately.

Dr Thakur expressed helplessness in healing the wounds of patients admitted there for want of doctors. “The number of patients increased manifold since the NDA regime. But there has not been any improvement in infrastructure,” the superintendent rued.

Dr Thakur said he has requested the principal secretary (health) for creating posts of 84 specialist doctors to treat the patients admitted in the emergency, intensive care unit and general wards of SKMCH.

The orthopaedic, gynaecology, ENT, surgery, general medicine departments are badly hit by the dearth of doctors.

The hospital is unable to run the emergency, intensive care unit and gynaecology wards round-the-clock. Things have reached to such a pass that the hospital has cancelled the weekly off of the doctors for the past three months.

At present, there is only one surgeon, one physician and one gynaecologist to look after the patients admitted in 16 wards of the hospital.