CG Health: Ambedkar Hospital Heart Surgery Stopped for Five Months, Patients Forced to Wander

CG Health: The Advanced Cardiac Institute (ACI) at Ambedkar Hospital has stopped open heart surgery for five months. This is because there is no reagent for the ABG machine. Patients who need valve replacement and hole closure in the heart are forced to wander. Such patients are being referred to AIIMS, but due to long waiting periods, they have no option but to go to private hospitals.

The Escart Heart Center was closed in 2017, and since then, the ACI has not been able to start heart bypass surgery. This is because there are no perfusionists and physician assistants.

Commissioner of Medical Education Kiran Kaushal called a meeting on August 22 with DME, the Dean, the Superintendent, and high officials of SGMC. It was decided that the reagent for the ABG machine would be arranged within a week. However, more than a month has passed, and the reagent has not been arranged. Not only this, but the tender has also not been issued. The reagent is not listed on the GeM portal.

In such a situation, it cannot be purchased from the GeM portal either. The hospital management has the power to purchase the reagent worth Rs 50,000, but even they want to purchase it through the GeM portal. Therefore, the purchase has been stuck. It is difficult to say when open heart surgery will start again. This means patients will have to get their surgery done at private hospitals.

Doctors Do Not Want to Join Due to Low Salary

A female cardiac anesthetist who was serving on a contract basis at ACI resigned in January. Since then, no new doctor has joined. Even after 9 months, no cardiac anesthetist has joined. This shows that super-specialty doctors do not want to join due to low salaries. The management had started open heart surgery by calling anesthetists, perfusionists, and physician assistants on a payment-per-case basis.

Contractual Assistant Professors Get Rs 1 Lakh Salary

Recently, the monthly salary for contractual assistant professors has been fixed at Rs 1 lakh. Earlier, they were getting Rs 95,000 per month. There are two regular cardiothoracic and vascular surgeons at ACI. They are performing surgeries related to blood vessels and lungs. Although there is a heart-lung machine, the lack of necessary staff has prevented heart bypass surgery from starting.