Staff shortage, infra gap, bribery cripples Kancheepuram government hospital

CHENNAI: The Kancheepuram Government Headquarters Hospital, which has been functioning for nearly a hundred years, is now facing challenges like severe staff shortages, infrastructure gaps, and allegations of bribery, causing widespread hardship for thousands of patients who depend on it every day.

The hospital, with 765 beds, offers services in general medicine, cardiology, ENT, orthopaedics, maternity care and various other specialities and receives over 1,500 outpatients and inpatients from Kancheepuram and neighbouring districts like Tiruvannamalai, Ranipet and Vellore daily.

Out of 85 doctors and 165 nurses assigned to the hospital, over 60 nurses have been sent on deputation to other government hospitals in Tambaram, Walajabad, Uthiramerur and Sriperumbudur. This has left the hospital with barely 100 nurses, and with many on leave at any given time, only 20 to 30 nurses are available on each shift. Each nurse is being forced to manage almost fifty beds, resulting in an extreme workload.

With two cardiologists having left nearly nine months ago, and no replacements having been appointed, heart patients are examined by general doctors or nurses and later sent to Chengalpattu GH or Rajiv Gandhi Government Hospital in the city for further treatment.

Pregnant women from surrounding rural areas face serious difficulties, as there are no technicians to operate the essential ECHO testing machine.

Karthick Raja from Kancheepuram said, women are left with no other option but to visit private labs, spending more money for tests that should be free.

The hospital is also facing bribery allegations as it is claimed that the staff demand Rs 2,000 when a boy is born and Rs 1,200 for a girl child. Additionally, the patients are asked to buy cleaning towels, surgical gowns costing Rs 600 from a specific shop, and other supplies that government hospitals are required to provide at no cost.

Several departments are practically non-functional. As there are no nephrologists or urology surgeons, kidney patients are sent elsewhere. As there is no dedicated burns ward, victims are shifted to KMC. The hospital is also devoid of emergency trauma care and neurosurgical services.

Despite possessing advanced machinery, including an eight crore angiography system provided four years ago, the lack of specialist doctors and technicians has left much of the equipment underutilised.

Activists point out that although the hospital has served the district for nearly a century, it has never been upgraded to a multi-speciality or medical college hospital. The services provided now are not even on par with those of a basic primary health centre.

Hospital management, when contacted, said the Directorate of Medical Services has already ordered that all nurses and technicians sent on deputation must return to their respective hospitals, and that cardiology vacancies have been formally reported to the Health Department. They claimed that steps are being taken to resolve the deficiencies and improve services as quickly as possible.