Carried to hospital with ‘no doctors’, Jharkhand woman, The incident has again exposed chinks in the public healthcare system in Jharkhand, where the health department’s internal documents point to a vacancy of 85 per cent posts for Surja Marandi, who lived with her husband Sunil Tudu in Laxmibathan colony of Tisri’s Bardauni village, gave birth to a child on Thursday morning. “A midwife had delivered a child on Thursday morning, but she could not remove the placenta and the bleeding continued.
Then she alerted the family members to immediately take her to the hospital upon which they carried her on the cot,” said Gawan BDO Madhu Kumari. When the woman reached the hospital around 5 pm, the doctors were allegedly unavailable. “The AYUSH practitioner had gone for lunch after performing surgeries… The woman died at the gates of the hospital, and the child had passed away earlier, as per the family members,” said Kumari, adding that the CHC has a sanctioned strength of six MBBS doctors but it only has two.
“One doctor was in training, another one did not turn up that day without notice. Two more doctors who had joined last year left without even taking charge.” Tisri BDO Sunil Prakash said Surja’s village lacks basic facilities such as PHC but “I had sanctioned a road one year back”. “The forest department had certain issues with it after which the work could not proceed…” Jharkhand Health Secretary Kamal Kishore Soan said, “A report will be submitted by the Deputy Commissioner of the district and I will take all corrective measures.
None of the culprits—the doctors who are said to be not present— will be spared.” The incident has again exposed chinks in the public healthcare system in Jharkhand, where the health department’s internal documents point to a vacancy of 85 per cent posts for specialist doctors.