Govt hospital OPD visits triple, but doctors and staff have not kept pace

The number of outpatients, or OPD cases, at the state's government hospitals is rising fast, but whether health services have expanded at the same pace is now a growing question. The threefold rise in OPD numbers shows that people's trust in the government health system has grown, but it also points to the pressure this has put on doctors, nurses, other health staff, beds and infrastructure.

According to Directorate of Health Services data, the public health department runs a total of 611 hospitals and centres across the state, including district hospitals, referral hospitals, general hospitals, women's hospitals, sub-district hospitals, rural hospitals and trauma care centres, with a combined 29,534 beds.

As the number of patients rises, the supply of medicines, lab tests, X-rays and other diagnostic facilities, as well as bed capacity, need to be scaled up accordingly. Former Director General of Health Services Dr Subhash Salunkhe said the rise in OPD numbers at government hospitals cannot simply be read as a sign of improved availability of health services. According to him, the time has come to assess how much the doctors, staff, beds and treatment capacity needed to handle the rising patient load have actually increased.

Per the data, the state's 20 district hospitals have 5,127 beds, 24 women's hospitals have 3,005 beds, sub-district hospitals with 33 beds each have a combined 3,300 beds, and sub-district hospitals with 50 beds each have a combined 3,650 beds. The state's 373 rural hospitals have 11,190 beds, while its 78 trauma care centres have 1,560 beds.

To keep rural patients from having to travel to big cities, 106 rural hospitals with 30 beds have been upgraded to sub-district hospital status. These hospitals treat referred patients and carry out various surgeries. But with the OPD patient load having tripled, the question is whether the number of doctors, surgeons, gynaecologists, paediatricians, nurses and technical staff has grown in the same proportion.

Dr Subhash Salunkhe said that along with increasing the number of beds and health workforce institutions in proportion to the population, it is also necessary to ensure larger participation by the private sector in health schemes. He said the progress of the public health system cannot be measured by the rise in OPD numbers alone; a balance between infrastructure, workforce and treatment capacity must also be built up.