J’khand health minister attends to 3 patients in hospital, says doctors’ crisis to be resolved soon

Dhanbad (Jharkhand), Dec 24 (PTI) Jharkhand Health Minister Irfan Ansari on Wednesday attended to three patients at the outpatients department (OPD) of the Dhanbad Sadar Hospital.

He assured the people that the issue of shortage of doctors in state-run hospitals will be resolved soon.

It has been widely mentioned in the media that the health minister would attend to patients in Dhanbad Sadar Hospital, which had made poor people gather in large numbers at the OPD since morning.

As per the programme announced in the media by the hospital authorities, Ansari was scheduled to sit at the OPD at 10.30 am. Later, it was extended to 11.30 am.

The minister, however, arrived at the hospital at 1.45 pm and left after attending only three patients, including a child, disappointing others.

One of the patients waiting in the queue, Rubijan Khatoon, claimed she had waited for four hours in the queue.

"I had come with the hope that the minister would ensure my complete treatment with medicines, but he left us in the queue," said the 50-year-old woman.

Dhanbad civil surgeon Dr Alok Vishwakarma, deputy superintendent of Sadar Hospital Dr Sanjeev Kumar assisted Ansari in attending to patients in the Sadar Hospital, which was decked up for his visit.

This is the second time that the health minister attended to patients in the OPD of a Sadar Hospital in the state. ). On December 3, he visited the OPD in Jamshedpur Sadar Hospital and attended to seven patients.

Later on Wednesday, Ansari inspected Shahid Nirmal Mahto Medical College Hospital where he said he would attend the OPD of sadar hospitals of all districts in the state for improvement of health services.

The health minister admitted that Sadar Hospitals and medical colleges of the state are reeling under an acute shortage of doctors.

“I have discussed the issue of shortage of doctors with the chief minister (Hemant Soren) and additional chief secretary (health) Ajay Kumar on Tuesday. The crisis will be solved soon by the government," said Ansari.

Earlier this month, BJP leader and former chief minister Champai Soren took a dig at Ansari for attending the OPD, asking who would be held responsible if a patient dies following his treatment.

He had also claimed that Ansari is a “fake doctor”, asserting that his name does not feature in the list of authorised doctors by the National Medical Commission (NMC). PTI COR ANB NN