Hospitals lack technical hands in Malda

Manas R Bannerjee

MALDA, April 10: Members of Malda district health executive committee today decided not to purchase sophisticated medical equipment due to lack of technical hands in various hospitals of the district, including the Malda district hospital. The decision was taken after the superintendent of Malda district hospital pointed out that the hospitals lack technical hands to handle these sophisticated equipment.The health committee members said that modern medical equipment were gathering dust in store rooms.“Under the circumstances, we had no other option but to hand over these equipment to government-run health institutions in Kolkata,” they said.Malda district administration officials and members of the health executive committee also raised the question of accountability of the staff and doctors in various the hospitals in the district. The officials and members of the committee instructed the health authorities to chalk out a plan for infrastructure development in the hospitals. The health authorities were also asked to take strong decision vis-à-vis placement of staff and doctors. The Malda CMOH has been instructed to make a report on infrastructure in hospitals and prepare a proposal for the placement of the staff for better management of the district hospitals. “The step has been taken to ensure that if the health officials face any problem in taking action against the errant hospital staff, the committee can easily take responsibility to manage the problems”, said a senior district official. The CMOH has been instructed to submit a list of irresponsible and absentee doctors to the committee. “Since the CMOH can not transfer a doctor, the committee would recommend proposal for transfer to the government”, said Mr Abdul Khaleque, Malda additional district magistrate (general).