The three government hospitals in Patna, supposed to deliver specialised services, are still battling with the problems of shortage of doctors and infrastructure deficiencies.

It’s been more than two years since the government had announced it would upgrade Rajendra Nagar Hospital, Loknayak Jai Prakash Narayan Hospital and New Gardiner Road Hospital into super-speciality hospitals for eyes, orthopaedic disorders and haemophilia, respectively. Nothing concrete has been done regarding these hospitals.

At Rajendra Nagar Hospital, there are 12 sanctioned posts for doctors but at present there are only nine. The super-speciality hospital for eyes also has not been able to start the cornea transplant yet. Nor it has any eye bank. This super-speciality hospital is at present doing only some minor surgeries.

A source at Rajendra Nagar Hospital said: “As the hospital does not have an eye bank, it also has not been able to start cornea transplant. Last year, Rajvardhan Azad (the head of ophthalmology department of AIIMS-Delhi) visited the hospital to see the development work but things are still going on at slow pace. Had the cornea transplant facility been started here, patients would not have been forced to visit Delhi and Tamil Nadu for getting the procedure done where they have to shell out something between Rs 10,000 and Rs 1 lakh.”

Naresh Kumar Bhimsariya, the director of Rajendra Nagar Hospital, admitted that the super-speciality hospital for eyes had no bank, so it had not been able to start the cornea transplant facility. “We would soon fill the post of dictors,” said Bhimsariya.

The condition of New Gardiner Road Hospital, a super-speciality for haemophilia, is no better. Thyroid is the most common problem in haemophilia patients but the post of endocrinologist (the expert doctor who can diagnose and treat the conditions like thyroid) is still lying vacant in the hospital. “We don’t have an endocrinologist yet. We have a nephrologist apart from three resident doctors,” said U.K. Gupta, director, New Gardiner Road Hospital.

A source in the hospital said: “We still do not have a blood bank and has also not made arrangements for factor 8 and factor 9 concentrations.”

Sources said a super-speciality hospital for haemophilia also needs to have multi-specialists like orthopaedic, neurosurgeons and infectious disease specialists because a haemophilic patient develops problems that need the assistance of these experts.

But the health department has not created any post for orthopaedic surgeons, neurosurgeons and infectious disease specialists at the hospital, the source said.

H.N. Diwakar, the director of Loknayak Jai Prakash Narayan Hospital, Rajvanshi Nagar, accepted that a few posts for doctors are vacant at the super-speciality hospital for orthopaedic disorders. “There are a few posts of doctors vacant at the hospital, along with some posts of non-medical employees,” he said, adding that the hospital was regularly doing knee-replacement and other surgeries.

A source said on many occasions it was found that the hospital did not have the basic things. Around six months ago an MLA, who was severely injured, was taken to the hospital and at that time there was no cotton at the facility. “Seeing the condition of the hospital, the MLA was taken to some private facility,” a doctor added.