Lalla Ded Hospital staff seek psychiatric help and counseling to cope with pressure
When Dr Sahrain Bhat (name changed) was examining a patient at Lalla Ded Hospital, the Valley’s major maternity centre, she received a kick on her abdomen. The doctor, who was 10 weeks pregnant, rushed downstairs in pain to get her own ultrasound done.
Though everything was fine, doctors in the hospital are often on the receiving end of the attendant’s fury. The stress of work only adds to their miseries.
The 500-bed hospital receives around 700-800 patients everyday with nearly 150 getting admitted to the centre, making the work challenging for a limited number of doctors.
Not only the female doctors, but their male counterparts also go through the grind. Dr Khalid (name changed) started the day at the hospital at 8:30 am and his duty will continue for 36 hours.
Being a resident doctor, Khalid faces additional stress. “We have alternate night shifts. We have to study as well, for which we don’t get time. This is one of the busiest maternity hospitals in Asia. We have to handle everything from labor room to emergency services. Patients keep visiting the hospital across the day and night,” Khalid adds.
Located in Srinagar’s Lal Mandi locality, the hospital caters to the patient rush from all the 10 districts of the Valley.
“There is a huge rush of patients to the hospital every day. At times, a patient has 32 attendants with her. We are stressed due to the huge public dealing. The attendants are never satisfied,” says Resident Medical Officer Dr Farhana.
Lalla Ded Hospital looks after the maternity health of 32, 57,056 women in Kashmir, sometimes even patients from Doda also visit the centre for treatment. However, the hospital has not got enough staff to support the huge influx, putting additional stress on the existing employees. “The staff strength of the hospital is very less as compared to the patient rush. The work is very challenging,” said one of the senior doctors in the administration.
The hospital has seven units in total and in every unit nearly 15-16 doctors are posted, including 3-5 residents doctors. The causality ward, which receives patients from the peripheries, is mostly being handled by the junior doctors.
On an average 90 babies get delivered in the hospital every day, most of them through Caesarean.
“Even security persons get a beating if something happens. We have restricted the entry of male attendants to labor room, but nobody follows the rules. They (attendants) become violent at times and beat the security guards. The uncontrolled crowd, which even take their lunch to the wards, is one of the biggest challenges for the hospital” said another doctor.
To reduce the attendant rush, the hospital authorities even changed its guidelines by increasing the rate of the tickets and allowing only two attendants with one patient. But the rules are never followed by the public, who sometimes answer it with protests, leaving the administration helpless.
