At least one senior doctor from departments related to surgery, including orthopaedic and neurology, will be in charge of the trauma care centre at SSKM Hospital at night, the authorities have decided.
“A roster has been drawn up and it has been decided that a senior member of the faculty from any of these departments related to surgery will be on duty at night at the trauma care centre,” said a senior official of SSKM Hospital.
“Sundays will be no exception,” the official said.
Senior faculty members from the departments of surgery, orthopaedics, neuro-surgery and plastic surgery will take turns to be on nightduty at the trauma care centre, officials said.
The decision to have a senior faculty member on night duty comes within days of chief minister Mamata Banerjee imploring the hospital authorities to ensure senior doctors remain present at night.
Mamata’s appeal had come within hours of relatives of a young patient who passed away at the trauma centre allegedly attacking doctors and vandalising the centre.
Senior officials of the hospital said a senior doctor — of the rank of associate professor and above — from the faculty of some departments related to surgery will remain responsible for all critical decisions at night while on duty at the trauma care centre. He or she will lead a team of doctors on rounds and take a call on how to deal with very critical patients using his or her expertise and years of experience in handling similar cases, officials said.
“Victims of road traffic accidents, including some who are very young, turn up at the centre at night. The presence of someone very senior will help junior resident doctors on duty to decide on the immediate line of treatment and procedures that should be followed,” officials said.
A few days back, the hospital authorities had posted senior faculty members on night duty at the trauma care centre to see how things played out. The result was encouraging, officials said.
A child from Raina in Burdwan who had suffered a road traffic accident was brought to the centre at night when a senior faculty member from the orthopaedic department was on duty.
“His presence was of great help to the resident doctors in handling the patient, who continues to remain critical,” said a senior official of the hospital’s administration.
Last week, while apologising for the attack on junior doctors following the death of a young patient from Hooghly’s Chinsurah at the trauma care centre, Mamata had rued the absence of senior doctors at night. She had said senior doctors should be present at night in hospitals.
“There were only two junior doctors then. This is related to an accident case that is four-five days old. Doctors tried their best for four or five days,” Mamata had said. “
Whenever someone young dies, it is natural for the family to feel very sad but they should not do this,” she said. “We made the traumacare centre with a lot of effort.”
Following the chief minister’s sharp criticism of the state of affairs at the trauma centre of SSKM hospital, the health department has recently transferred five doctors from as many districts to join the existing team of doctors there.
“We have sought more doctors,” the senior official of the hospital’s administration said.
