Bhopal: Hamidia Hospital Grapples With Trained Staff Shortage For High-End Machines

Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): Hamidia Hospital, despite being equipped with advanced medical machines, faces a challenge with a shortage of skilled personnel to operate them. To address this, the hospital authorities resort to ad hoc arrangements, hiring staff as needed. The doctors emphasize the need for proper maintenance and the necessity for trained staff to ensure the regular operation of the expensive medical equipment.

Some medical services like CT scan have been privatized and so their maintenance is handled by a concerned company.

Dr A K Shrivastava, Director medical education, discussing the shortage of trained staff in Hamidia Hospital said that while some departments have adequate staff, there's still a need for additional hands in other departments to ensure the smooth operation of machines.

The hospital medio-engineer, Vaibhav Jain, stressed on the challenges associated with high-end medical machines saying that they demand skilled staff to operate them.

During the machine installation process, efforts are made to train the existing staff, however, there is a need for additional hands, said Jain, adding that despite the current shortage, the hospital manages with the available trained staff.

Moreover, he stated that if trained staff is recruited then it would not be possible to provide necessary training to PG students to effectively operate and manage such equipment. Training is crucial as in departments like ophthalmology and ENT, the resident doctors directly handle the sophisticated medical equipment, Jain said.

Dr Rakesh Malviya, professor at GMC the administration wakes up when crisis comes calling. “If a machine is running smoothly, no one cares about its maintenance and staff strength but when the medical device breaks down then the issue of expert and trained staff crops up.” If there are no trained persons to handle the high-end machine then the administration has to outsource them as and when required, he added.

Dr ID Chaurasia, former medical superintendent also stressed on the need to have trained staff to run the medical apparatus. “There must be training of staff before installation of machines but it does not happen in practice. First machines are installed at the hospital and then the training of staff is carried out as per the requirement,” Chaurasia said.