GUWAHATI, May 29: The Guwahati Medical College Hospital (GMCH) which has been in the news for all the wrong reasons, beginning with the lack of basic amenities to the invasion of rats, is now grappling with another problem? that of mass exodus of superspecialist doctors who, after their return from higher training abroad, resign from their Government jobs at the GMCH. These superspecialists from the GMCH are send abroad by the State Government for higher training, but as they quit the GMC after their return, the fruits of their training fail to reach the poor patients of the State who are still very much dependent on the GMCH for treatment.
According to a source is the GMCH, these superspecialists are compelled to resign from their government jobs due to the lack of importance and recognition given to them by State Government. ?They, in fact, are not given any scope to put to use their skill acquired during the training abroad,? the source said.
As many as ten doctors of the GMCH who were sent by the State Government to various centres in the country, have not reported back or have resigned from their jobs. Senior superspecialists in various fields of medicine have also taken to voluntary retirement from Government service creating a vacuum in the teaching and professional atmosphere in medical services. This brain drain, in the process, has severely affected the poor people of the State as well as the North-east.
There are instances where MBBS doctors have been transferred and posted at the GMCH while some superspecialists transferred elsewhere, where even the basic infrastructures like ICU, CT scan, competent staff, etc are not available, resulting in non-utilisation of the services of these skilled professionals to the fullest potential. This has forced many doctors to get frustrated and quit their Government jobs and join the private sector health care which, again, is tremendously exploiting them including the general public as a whole. It is high time the State Government took some positive steps to check this evil trend which is sure to turn the GMCH into a postgraduate institution without competent doctors.