Over 25 pc doctor posts lie vacant at Assam Medical College, staff crunch hits patient care
Guwahati: Assam Medical College and Hospital (AMCH) in Dibrugarh is battling a deepening manpower crisis, with more than a quarter of its sanctioned doctor posts lying vacant and nurses stretched to handle up to 200 patients a shift at one of Upper Assam’s key tertiary care centres.
A senior hospital official said 121 of the 434 approved medical posts are currently unfilled, leaving AMCH with only 313 doctors. That means nearly 28 per cent of sanctioned positions are vacant, with the shortfall affecting 23 departments. The deficit of junior doctors has further compounded the burden on existing teams.
The situation has worsened after several doctors and staff were transferred to newly set up medical colleges in districts such as Tinsukia and Lakhimpur. The vacancies created by these transfers have yet to be filled, tightening the workforce at AMCH even as patient inflow remains high.
The nursing staff is under particular strain. The hospital, which now has close to 2,000 beds, operates with only around 449 nurses. When AMCH was upgraded from a medical school to a medical college in 1947, it had about 900 beds and roughly 900 nurses. While bed capacity has more than doubled since, nursing strength has remained almost static.
As a result, nurses are often managing extremely high patient loads, with one nurse attending to between 150 and 200 patients during some night shifts. Such workloads have raised concerns about the time available for individual patient care, monitoring and other critical nursing responsibilities.
Shortages also extend to support staff, including Grade IV employees. The combined deficit of doctors, nurses and auxiliary personnel is putting additional pressure on the existing workforce amid consistently heavy daily footfall.
AMCH serves as a major referral hub for Upper Assam and draws patients from multiple districts as well as neighbouring Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland.
Diagnostic services are also under stress. MRI and CT scan machines at the hospital are reported to break down frequently. When these facilities are unavailable, economically weaker patients are forced to visit private diagnostic centres, where scans can cost several thousand rupees.
These gaps in staffing and equipment come even as Assam expands its network of medical colleges and healthcare infrastructure. For patients who rely on AMCH for affordable tertiary care, however, the shortages in manpower and diagnostics remain a major worry.
(Inputs from IANS)