The 300-bed Government Hospital for Mental Care (GHMC) in the city is
in a dismal state. Not only is the hospital suffering from an acute
shortage of drugs and manpower, it is also plagued by a host of
administrative problems as well as political interference.
This
even as the retirement of its superintendent M Vijaya Gopal on Tuesday,
has thrown the hospital into further uncertainty. Gopal was the only
doctor in the hospital's 130-year history to serve as superintendent
twice from 1993-99 and 2011-13.
Those familiar with the working of the hospital said that most of
the shelves in the hospital's pharmacy lie empty and patients have to
pay from their pockets to purchase drugs, most of which have to be taken
life long, from the market. The only drug available is THP
(trihexyphenidyl), which is used to minimise the side effects of
psychiatric medicines, admitted GHMC pharmacist Mohini.
"Doctors
have prescribed three medicines that my brother has to take daily, but
none of these is available in the hospital. We will have to buy these
medicines, which cost around Rs 1,500 for a month's supply, from
pharmacies outside," lamented A Ram Babu, sibling of a Vizianagaram
patient undergoing treatment at the hospital.
"There has been an
acute shortage of psychiatric drugs for the last one year as the supply
from the AP Medical Services Infrastructure Development Corporation
(APMSIDC) is neither adequate nor does it come on time. The
administrative powers of the superintendent too are caught in red
tapism, resulting in unwarranted delays in procuring anything for the
hospitals," admitted former GHMC superintendent Vijaya Gopal.
He
also alleged that the outsourcing of work to contractors with strong
political links has led to problems as the salaries of the workers are
often pocketed by the contractors.
As if this was not enough, the
hospital is reeling under an acute manpower shortage. The hospital,
which gets around 70,000 out-patients each year and has around 6,000 new
cases being registered every year, has no resident medical officers to
ensure smooth running of each department or specially trained
psychiatric nurses to take care of the patients.
The former
superintendent also revealed that sometimes they are forced to keep
patients for over six months to a year in the hospital though they are
fit to go home, due to political pressure. "These patients are referred
to us by some MPs and MLAs. We are forced to oblige though it is against
mental health norms to keep patients in hospital unnecessarily as we
are told that the relatives are either too poor or not interested in
taking them back," he said.
Even the appointment of the new
in-charge superintendent was fraught with politicking. While there were
four contenders for the top job, the health directorate eventually
placed psychiatrist Prof N N Raju, who is also the vice-principal of
Andhra Medical College, as in-charge superintendent till a permanent
superintendent takes over. The two frontrunners for the post, based on
seniority, were Prof N N Raju and Prof S Radha Rani but others keen on
the job started indulging in mud-slinging against other contenders.
According to hospital sources, one of those vying for the post was
allegedly involved in misappropriation of funds allotted by Indian
Council for Medical Research (ICMR) for research, while there were
allegations of another doctor violating clinical trial guidelines when
the trials were conducted on patients at the hospital between 2006 and
2011. Ultimately, clinical trials were stopped in the hospital from
2011.
Source : T.O.I , Vishakhapatnam , 2nd May 2013
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