Berhampur, May 11: The department of neurology at MKCG Medical College and Hospital here is suffering from severe staff crunch.

For the past for years, the department has been running with only one assistant professor, who was also appointed on an ad-hoc basis.

"Though the department has sanctioned posts of one professor, one associate professor and one assistant professor, all three are lying vacant. We have requested the higher authorities to fill up the vacant posts several times," said MKCG Medical College and Hospital superintendent Ashok Kumar Behera.

Uma Prasad Padhi, the ad-hoc assistant professor, manages the department single-handedly. One senior resident assists him.

"I have to take care of both outdoor and indoor duties. It is definitely taxing and I face a lot of problems. But, I try my best to treat the patients within the limits of the infrastructure available," Padhi said.

He said he attended outdoor duty on Tuesdays, Fridays and Saturdays and treated between 60 and 70 patients on average. "I also attend 'call on service' to patients in the medicine and surgery departments in case of emergencies. Besides, the neurology department has 10 beds, although there is no separate intensive care unit for the department," he said.

Sources said the professor's post of the department of neurology had been lying vacant since Sunamali Bag was promoted to the post of directorate of medical education and training, Bhubaneswar, four years ago.