The Miserable Condition of AIIMS Patna's Emergency and Trauma Services

Rohit Kumar, a youth and Israel Khan, an octogenarian, were rushed to the emergency cum trauma centre at AIIMS Patna by their family with a big hope. Within few hours, their hopes were shattered. They left disappointed and shocked at the pathetic condition of the much-hyped All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Patna.

Eighteen year old Rohit, a resident of Chapra town, about 80 kms from Patna, has been battling for his life after he met with a road accident, which badly damaged his hip and knee. He requires operation but the local doctors refused to operate him due to the serious risk involved in it as he is also suffering from a heart valve disease.

“We brought Rohit to the emergency ward in AIIMS Patna, but for the last three days, he was neither treated nor admitted here as there is no place. Rohit has been bed-ridden ever since his accident, he cannot sit and stand, and has been waiting for his turn on a moving stretcher. What shocked me is that the staff have suggested me to shift him to either the Patna Medical College and Hospital, a state government run premier hospital, or to any private hospital because there is no chance of his treatment here,” Rohan Kumar Rai, a cousin of Rohit, said.

Rohan said he was advised by some staff of AIIMS Patna to go for “pairvi” or “jugaad” (recommendation) from Union Ministers, or any minister from Bihar or someone powerful and influential, if he wanted his brother to be treated.

Saying that he may be forced to admit Rohit somewhere else in Patna or to rush to AIIMS Delhi for his treatment, Rohan told NewsClick, “For common people like us, there is no facility but, big tall claims by the government.”

Similarly, Israel, in his mid-80s, who went unconscious after suffering from brain haemorrhage, was brought to the emergency ward by his son and close relatives. He is a resident of a village in Aurangabad district, about 100 kms from Patna. After the initial check up by two junior doctors on duty, Israel was left in the lurch for over 24 hours.

“After a heated exchange with the staff on duty, a CT scan of the head and X-ray were conducted six hours after we admitted him in the emergency ward, despite the fact that he was battling for life. What surprised us is that after the CT scan, no opinion was given for another 18 hours, as the report was not checked by a senior doctor from the neuro department. We were repeatedly asked by the nursing staff in the ward to wait again and again,” the patient’s son, Faiz Khan said.

After waiting for nearly 24 hours, Faiz was asked by the nursing staff to go to the neuro ward and try to meet a senior doctor for his opinion on the CT scan report. “Left with no option, I went to the neuro ward and waited for over two and half hours to meet the doctor. After all the waiting, the doctor told us that there is no vacancy to admit my father and his turn will come after one or two weeks, till then, we have to manage the patient on our own,” he said.

Faiz told NewsClick that his bitter experience at AIIMS Patna has exploded the myth of health facilities for poor like him. “My father remained in emergency for over 28 hours at the mercy of few nursing staff and junior doctors, who would do the rounds once or twice in a day. Usually emergency is a place for urgency, but there was nothing like that in this case,” Faiz said. Following this incident, he decided to returned to his village with his seriously ill father as he did not have the money to admit him at the costly private hospitals in Patna.

Insufficient Machinery and Doctors

Rohan and Faiz are just two of the dozens of close relatives of patients, who admitted to NewsClick that the emergency and trauma centre at AIIMS Patna is still not fully equipped to deal with trauma and emergency cases. In addition to the lack of beds, there is also a lack of doctors who can attend to the patients who are rushed to the ward.

Talking to NewsClick about the insufficient facilities, one of the nursing staff told, “Only one CT scan machine is taking care of the services in emergency and trauma, while 2-3 machines are still not operational. There is a big pressure on the single operational CT scan machine.”

At present, the number of beds in the emergency and trauma ward are only 55, as opposed to the 150 proposed.

Different staff including security, elevator and wheel chair carrying men, who are from private agencies and are working in the ward told NewsClick that the situation is so bad that they never advise their family members and relatives to admit a patient here. “We simply discourage our known people not to rush here because of the lack of facilities to treat a patient battling for life,” one of the cleaning staff said.

One of the staff responsible for carrying people on wheel chairs said it is not the right place for common people. He said, “Soon after being admitted in the emergency and trauma centre, after initial treatment, nursing staff to doctors on duty would refer patients to other government hospitals citing lack of beds in different wards. If a patient is capable of pressurising the authorities, through recommendations from powerful people, like ministers, MPs, MLAs or IAS officers, he or she will be treated here carefully. But for common patients, it is only wait and a difficult situation here.”

Soon after the Union Minister of State for Health Ashwani Kumar Choubey inaugurated the much-awaited emergency and trauma services at AIIMS Patna in August 2018, he claimed that this facility will provide much-needed help to those who had to travel to AIIMS Delhi or other hospitals outside the state. Contrary to the claims, the reality in the ground zero is very different.

However, AIIMS Patna director Prabhat Kumar Singh said that there is nothing wrong with the emergency and trauma services. “We are trying our best to provide medical treatment to as many people as possible. There has been a qualitative change in AIIMS Patna with the emergency and trauma wards functioning for over seven months,” Singh said.

Emergency and Trauma Centre Not the Only Issue

Till July 2018, AIIMS Patna was running without basic facilities like emergency and trauma services.

Nearly six years after AIIMS Patna started, there is still a lack of several essential facilities. Almost half of the operation theatres are not functional and shortage of specialist doctors have been creating problems to ensure proper treatments to patients even in the OPD.

There is a shortage of specialist manpower, equipment and proper infrastructure. Dozens of critical patients return without being admitted as there are no facilities for their treatment.

A medicine shop owner near the main gate told NewsClick, “Despite the hype created few years ago, AIIMS Patna has so far not become a hub of healthcare or destination for critical patients, particularly the poor, in Bihar.”

The sprawling premises of AIIMS Patna is something that makes a good impression on anyone visiting for the first time. But it has a long way to go to fulfil the expectations of the common people. And thanks to the poor facilities there, hundreds of private hospitals in Patna continue to exploit poor people as they have no other option.