Thiruvananthapuram: While the work on a major Operation theatre (OT) at the Medical College Hospital (MCH) drags on, several scheduled operations are being postponed creating a backlog for surgeons. Around 50 per cent of the scheduled operations which are not emergencies have to be postponed due to the maintenance work at Operation theatre A. On Thursday, 60 operations were conducted in Theatre B including several thyroid surgeries. The same table was used for over six surgeries.
The works on the OT have entered the third week and 30 days has been set as the deadline. “The annual work in the theatre has not taken place for three years despite it working non-stop every day. The microbiology department reported about several infections. For example, certain doors and windows do not close leading to infections from outside,” said a highly placed official of Medical College Hospital. As per conservative estimates, the Medical College needs four operation theatres to deal with the crowd of patients.
“A new operation theatre will be functional near the casualty in the next six months. Once this comes up, periodic maintenance of operation theatres will be hassle free. Operation theatre B will not have to be shut down because of a recent maintenance,” said officials. The PWD (special buildings) department said that they were doing everything possible to expedite works. A contractor has been awarded the work based on e-tenders and the works are not being done round the clock. Incidentally, Thiruvananthapuram MCH and Kozhikode MCH compete with each other to operate on the most number of patients.
