Intensive care unit remains nonfunctional and surgeries delayed as hospital struggles to ease patient burden
MULTAN:
Multan’s Nishtar-II Hospital, established to reduce the growing patient burden of Nishtar-I Hospital, is yet to achieve its primary objective due to acute shortage of administrative and medical staff, sources revealed.
According to hospital officials, Nishtar-II has been facing a persistent human resource crisis since its inception. As a result, its intensive care unit (ICU) remains non-operational so far, forcing critically ill patients to be transferred to other hospitals several kilometers away. The situation has also affected surgical services, with patients having to wait a long time for surgery.
Sources attribute the delay mainly to a serious shortage of doctors and technical staff in the anesthesia department. The hospital currently has six operating tables, but managing them simultaneously has become a major challenge for the administration. Due to staffing constraints, only three to four operating tables are functional during the morning shift, while the situation deteriorates further in the evening and night shifts, where only gynecological and emergency surgeries are performed.
Internal sources further claimed that several doctors at Nishtar-II were giving little time to the hospital while giving priority to private practice, which was adversely affecting public health services.
Another serious problem emerged regarding operating room (OT) staff. Sources revealed that no occupational therapist assistant has been officially recruited at the hospital. To fill this gap, employees hired as part of the maintenance staff are assigned tasks as occupational therapist assistants.
It is learned that most of these assistants are officially designated as maintenance staff and receive salaries equivalent to those of sanitation workers, although they carry out very sensitive and technical tasks. Experts warn that this practice violates not only department rules, but also medical and legal standards, posing potential risks to patient safety.
Official communications sent by the Department of Anesthesia and the ICU have requested immediate recruitment for dozens of vacant positions to ensure the provision of basic health services. The documents reveal that to run 10 operating theaters (six elective and four emergency), the hospital needs at least 18 senior anesthesia registrars, 18 doctors or female doctors, nine surgical technologists, nine anesthesia technologists, nine head nurses, 36 charge nurses, 18 junior technicians (surgery), 18 junior technicians (anesthesia), as well as sweepers and stretcher bearers.
Similarly, to operationalize a 50-bed ICU and other departments, the hospital requires one professor of anesthesia/intensive care, five associate professors, 10 assistant professors, 20 senior registrars in anesthesia, 20 in medicine, 35 doctors, five head nurses, 50 charge nurses, physiotherapy technologists, pharmacists and additional support staff including service attendants and security personnel.
Medical professionals and residents have urged the Punjab Health Department to immediately address the staffing crisis by recruiting doctors, anesthetists, nurses and technical staff. They emphasized that prompt action is essential for Nishtar-II to operate at full capacity and effectively reduce the burden on Nishtar-I Hospital.
