North Lakhimpur: The 30-bedded Laluk Model Hospital at North Lakhimpur in Assam has suspended its emergency services due to a shortage of manpower.
The Deputy Superintendent posted a notice on March 17, announcing the discontinuation of emergency services due to the lack of doctors.
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Deputy Superintendent Dr. Bharati Borah, on Thursday, explained that out of five Senior Medical Officer positions at the hospital, two were vacant, and the third position, filled by a National Health Mission (NHM) doctor, was also unoccupied.
“We have been providing emergency care with the help of these three doctors, but the transfer of two Senior Medical Officers and the child care leave of the third has made things difficult. We are now operating with just one Ayush doctor,” she said.
Dr. Borah further stated that the higher authorities were informed about the doctor shortage, and a Medical Officer under the 1-Year Compulsory Rural Posting scheme under NHM was appointed to the hospital.
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Laluk Model Hospital serves over four hundred patients daily, handling institutional deliveries and accident cases, and covers a large area that stretches to the Assam-Arunachal Pradesh border in the Lakhimpur district.
The hospital’s location on NH-15 attracts more emergency and referral patients from the western part of Lakhimpur.
The suspension of emergency services at Laluk Model Hospital has forced many patients to travel 25 km to Lakhimpur Medical College and Hospital in North Lakhimpur.
Over the years, many medical and health officers from various hospitals and public health centers in Lakhimpur district have resigned. In the past decade, 14 doctors from state-run hospitals have either resigned or opted for voluntary retirement.
Three Sub-Divisional Medical and Health Officers (SDM&HO) from the Ghilamora Block Primary Health Centre, including one Obstetrician and Gynecologist and one ENT surgeon, have taken voluntary retirement during this period.
Similarly, SDM&HOs, Senior Medical and Health Officers, and Medical and Health Officers, including Ophthalmologists, General Surgeons, Physicians, and Obstetricians and Gynecologists from several other healthcare centers in the district, have opted for voluntary retirement, creating a void in the state-run healthcare services in Lakhimpur.