All is still not well at RIMS, Ranchi, a three-member team from the Medical Council of India (MCI) found out on Friday during an inspection of the state-run hospital that aspires to retain its 150 MBBS seats.
Professor of community medicine at Rohtas Medical College, Haryana, Dr J.S. Mallik; professor of medicine at Maulana Azad Medical College, New Delhi, Dr Suresh Kumar; and professor of physiology at PDU Government Medical College, Rajkot, Dr Radhe Shyam Trivedi were satisfied with the academic facilities, but glaring lapses in clinical services like OPD consultation in an open hall and a defunct sterilisation machine left them shocked.
The five-hour inspection, which began from 9.30am, was video-recorded and may spell fresh troubles for the RIMS management's MBBS seat ambition if the service gaps the MCI team captured on camera aren't plugged without delay.
It was a deceptive beginning to the day as Dr Trivedi, inspecting student amenities, found the lecture theatres and biochemistry hall impressive. His only on-spot recommendation was mounting a projector in every demonstration room.
However, Dr Mallik and Dr Kumar, verifying clinical improvements the premier hospital had made over the months since the last MCI recce, were in for multiple shockers. The registration counter put the patient footfall at 1,180 on Friday and the doctors decided to split up and inspect.
Dr Kumar began with the gynaecology OPD and wanted to see consultation rooms. "The tea corner is a consultation room. I don't believe this!" he said when he was shown a chamber turned into a snacks-and-beverage stall. He directed the videographer to have the anomaly on record.
The next stop was a large hall where PG doctors were engaged in consultation on eight tables. "Consultation is done in the open? Patients have no privacy?" Dr Kumar made his disbelief obvious once again. RIMS head of gynaecology Dr Shahsi Bala told him that patients were examined in two closed rooms.
Dr Mallik, on the other hand, was reviewing the casual OT. He asked to see the sterilisation machine and was shocked to know that it was out of order. He spotted some men repairing it and asked, "Are there more sterilisation machines?" They said no.
" Itne bade hospital mein sirf ek sterilisation machine, woh bhi kharab? Achcha EtO steriliser kidhar hai (Such a large hospital and only one sterilisation machine, and that too non-functional? By the way, where is the EtO)?" Dr Mallik asked next. No one seemed to know.
Finally, a candid RIMS employee told him, "EtO kya hai pata nahi (We don't know what an EtO is)." EtO stands for ethylene oxide. Ethylene oxide sterilisation is a process consisting of four primary variables: gas concentration, humidity, temperature and time. Ethylene oxide is an alkylating agent that disrupts the DNA of microbes, which prevents them from reproducing.
Kumar and Mallik then checked on the radiology ward separately. While Dr Mallik was informed that RIMS has five X-ray machines of which three were functional and that the CT scan machine was out of order, Dr Suresh was told that there were six X-ray machines, one CT scan unit and one MRI unit, and that all were functional. The information offered to Dr Mallik was correct, it was later found.
At the orthopaedic ward, they were disturbed to see patients on the floor. "We have 86 beds and 200 patients. What can we do?" a nurse told them.
RIMS director Dr B.L. Sherwal said: "It was just a regular inspection for permission of admission to 150 MBBS seats."
Should RIMS be allowed to retain its 150 MBBS seats? Tell ttkhand@abpmail.com
