Shri Krishna Medical College and Hospital superintendent G.K. Thakur on Wednesday requested to be relieved of his responsibility because of the government’s alleged failure to depute sufficient doctors at the heath hub.

He offered to be removed at a meeting with senior health officials, including principal secretary Deepak Kumar and secretary Anand Kishore, in Patna. The principal secretary promised to depute 20-25 doctors at the hospital in a week and convinced Thakur to continue on the post.

Thakur has been holding the superintendent’s post for the past nine years. He came up with the request because of the health department’s failure to depute sufficient number of doctors at the health hub. It functions with 67 doctors in the place of 110.

He told The Telegraph from Patna that he expressed his willingness to quit because of the hard time in running the hospital because of the shortage of 43 doctors. He quoted principal secretary, health, Deepak Kumar as saying 20-25 doctors would be deputed at the hospital within a week.

The government took over the SKMCH in 1979. At that time, 110 posts were sanctioned for the hospital. “Now, the number of patients has increased by three times. The government has neither revised the sanctioned strength nor posted doctors based on the workload,” said Thakur.

Thakur, who took over the superintendent’s post in January 2005, said if the vacancies were not filled in the next few weeks, he would quit.

A doctor said: “Things have come to such a pass that the emergency services for gynaecology, medicine and orthopaedic departments have been stopped.”

Thakur candidly said: “The doctors are being persuaded to run the 24-hour emergency services. But how long can I continue to persuade the doctors?”

Sources said at least 400 patients are received at the hospital’s outdoor department daily. The indoor wards of gynaecology and orthopaedic departments get at least 200 patients every day but there are only two doctors each in both wings to attend to them.