The surgical patients at the Rajshahi Medical College Hospital (RMCH) must face two extra problems after they wait months to be scheduled for operations.
Firstly, there are an insufficient number of anaesthetists at the hospital, and secondly, senior anaesthetists are hard to find before a surgical operation despite hospital authorities making it mandatory for any operation to have one present.
Because of these problems, it takes a patient two to three months to get onto the operating table.
Although the “reluctance” and “negligence” of senior anaesthetists have often been cited as reasons for delays in getting operations scheduled, hospital authorities claim it happens due a shortage of manpower.
Meanwhile, junior physicians at RMCH said they had to do most of the work related to administering anaesthetics to patients.
“The senior anaesthetists are hard to find; they are busy with outside work,” they said, adding that on-duty surgeons and doctors literally have to struggle to get support from their seniors.
According to sources, the department of anaesthesiology at the hospital consists of one professor, three assistant professors, three senior consultants, five junior consultants and 14 diploma trainees.
Of them, the professor, assistant professors and senior consultants rarely visit the operation theatres.
Several patients complained to this correspondent that they had to wait for months before they were able to undergo operations.
Nazrul Islam, a patient hailing from Rohanpur under Chapai Nawabganj, was admitted to RMCH on June 9. He said he was still waiting to find out a date for his operation.
RMCH sources said a letter issued four months ago from the hospital’s director made the presence of a senior anaesthetist “mandatory” during any operation.
But this does not happen, as senior anaesthetists, instead of attending hospital operations, reportedly work at various private clinics in the city.