Guest guest Posted September 19, 2006 Report Share Posted September 19, 2006 In city, AIDS care in disarray as four docs quit in three months Ravik Bhattacharya Kolkata, September 11: As West Bengal combats an alarming rise in HIV-AIDS, the state's top medical institution dealing with the disease is fighting its own battle, with four senior doctors and one junior doctor resigning in the past three months. The city-based School of Tropical Medicine's anti-retro viral therapy (ART) centre is the largest treatment centre for AIDS patients in the region, where two senior medical officers resigned a day after joining duty, and a third resigned after receiving appointment letter to the same post. Another junior doctor also resigned on September 2. Though the official reasons varied — " unavoidable circumstances " and " job condition do not coincide with work profile " — the situation has emerged as a major concern for the state government. Started a year back by the state Health department along with National Aids Control Organisation (NACO), the ART centre at the Tropical at present caters to over 1,000 critical AIDS patients. " It seems no doctor is ready to join the School of Tropical Medicine's ART centre. For the past four months we were trying to fill up the two vital posts of senior and junior medical officers but everyone seems to shy away, " a senior health department official said. " We were able to recruit one senior (doctor) after the three doctors left, but I do not know how long he will stay. " The newly recruited doctor is responsible for overall supervision, treatment and distributing ART medicines to HIV-AIDS patients. The crisis began in June, with senior medical officer Dr Anish Das's resignation. Dr Bhaswati Ghosal was appointed to the post on July 4 but she stopped attending duty within seven days of joining. On July 29, Dr Ghosal sent her resignation to the health department — " unavoidable circumstances " led to the decision, the resignation letter said. She was replaced by Dr Niloy Sinha, of Katihar Medical College and Hospital in Bihar, on August 4. But officials said he sent an SMS to Tropical officials after two days, saying he cannot join since Katihar Medical College was reluctant to release him. Dr Gouri Kumar was the third person to receive an appointment, on August 22. But on August 29 she met health department officials and forwarded her resignation, stating that the " practical job profile did not coincide with given guidelines " . All three doctors were appointed by the state HIV-AIDS Prevention and Control Society, which followed due procedure. " We do not know the actual reasons for their resignation, " the health department official said. " It may be the hectic work schedule, general scare of dealing with AIDS patients or even harassment. We have had meetings with the doctors who left but no one confided officially. " Meanwhile, Suvodip Pal, a junior doctor at the ART centre, resigned on September 2, making the situation more critical. Caught off guard, the state government recruited one Dr Nilesh Sharma as senior medical officer on August 30 on an emergency basis. http://cities.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=200976 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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