DMCH emergency at night

Patients crying for help, and doctors not knowing what to do with them, are a common sight at the emergency unit. The grievously injured victims of accidents come to the emergency only to be treated with what may be termed unpardonable insensitivity on the part of the doctors and all others concerned. But doctors complain of overwork.

The emergency unit is not adequately equipped or manned to handle the rush of patients. This is really an unacceptable shortcoming, since a pretty high number of road accidents takes place in the city every day.

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Incredible though it may sound, the patients who need blood to survive have to arrange it themselves, as the emergency cannot provide the life-saving fluid.

It is no secret that the public sector hospitals are a picture of gross mismanagement and anomalies of all kinds. Nevertheless, an emergency unit is an entirely different proposition. The groaning and bleeding patients need quick medical attention and sympathetic treatment. But the DMCH authorities are apparently not in a position to provide such facilities to them.

That raises a basic question. If an emergency ward fails to attend to people in great physical distress, then it cannot possibly justify its name. True, the DMCH emergency has its constraints and limitations that cannot be overlooked. But the hospital authorities should realise that there are areas where the needed service has to be provided no matter what. The emergency is certainly one of them.

The higher authorities must look into the matter and develop the emergency unit into an effective service provider.