Acute Shortage of Doctors Plagues Bihar Year After Tejashwi’s big Announcement

Patna: The acute shortage of doctors, particularly specialists, in Bihar’s government hospitals has severely impacted the poor, who are one-third of the state’s 13.7 crore total population.

As per reports, the OPD and emergency services of Chapra Sadar Hospital, in Saran district, have an acute shortage of specialist doctors. The hospital, which has only 28 doctors despite 72 posts, has no skin doctor or pathologist for the last eight years.

“Hundreds of patients return daily without even the basic check-up due to the shortage for years,” a district health official told NewsClick.

Most primary or community health centres are non-
functional and even district hospitals have a shortage of doctors and basic medicines.

Contrary to the state government’s claims, health infrastructure is poor as ultrasound and X-ray machines in most hospitals are defunct.

As per local dailies, since the coalition government was formed 14 months ago, several seriously ill patients could not be hospitalised due to either unavailability of medical staff or lack of equipment. These poor patients eventually become victims of quacks in rural Bihar.

The government recently admitted in the Assembly that the doctor-population ratio is very poor with one doctor per 22,000 people.

Around 8,000 post of doctors are vacant, agriculture minister Kumar Sarvjeet said in the Assembly two days ago while replying to CPI(ML) MLA Manoj Manzil, who questioned the shortage of specialist doctors and asked when the government will fill the vacancies. Sarvjeet also informed that recruitment of doctors is under way and hundreds of doctors will be appointed soon.

According to health department official data, the state has 21,755 vacancies for doctors but only 13,845 doctors, including 10,929 permanent and 2,916 contractual, are filled.

Going by the WHO norm of having one doctor for every 1,000 people, Bihar should have 1.30 lakh doctors. But the state has nearly 1.19 lakh doctors, including private, Ayush, homeopathy, Unani and dentists.

A recent surprise visit to government hospitals by state ministers, MLAs, MLCs and top health officials exposed the lack of basic facilities. Attendants expressed complained of doctors not visiting their patients due to staff shortage and being asked to purchase medicines from outside. Some of the patients were asked to get diagnostic tests done from outside.

In November 2022, deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav, who also has the health portfolio, announced a plan to improve health facilities but the situation remains the same a year later.

Two months before the announcement, Yadav’s surprise midnight visit to the Patna Medical College and Hospital revealed that doctors and other medical staff were absent and there was a lack of sanitation with dogs inside the wards of the state’s largest government hospital. Patients and their attendants complained of the unavailability of medicines and other facilities.

Subsequently, Yadav convened a high-level meeting of all civil surgeons and gave an ultimatum of 60 days to ensure proper treatment at government hospitals and improve their condition.

However, a month after the meeting, Yadav visited the Nalanda Medical College and Hospital to check among other things treatment being provided to dengue patients and found utter negligence. Several patients and their relatives complained of not getting medicines and being asked to buy medicines and drinking water from outside. Besides, nurses allegedly refused to attend to them at night.

Following the visit, Yadav said that 705 doctors were either absent or worked for only more than six months over 5-12 years yet were paid. He said that action would be taken against such doctors.

Yadav also admitted that several doctors posted in rural health centres hardly work and continue to practise in urban areas.

The Comptroller and Auditor General of India’s (CAG) 2022 report also highlighted Bihar’s alarming healthcare situation with mainly district hospitals having a severe lack of resources and workforce, including doctors, nurses and paramedic staff.

According to the report, Bihar has had a persistent shortage of doctors, nurses, paramedical staff and technicians from 2014 to 2020 yet the health department didn’t publish the total number of vacancies. The CAG also highlighted the despite the shortfall of beds, ranging from 52% to 92%, the strength has not been increased even after a decade.

The poor state of healthcare was noticed during the audit of the functioning of hospitals in Bihar Sharif, Hajipur, Jehanabad, Madhepura, and Patna districts from 2014-15 to 2019-20.