Fear keeping doctors away from TB hospital

Mumbai: The civic-run Sewri Tuberculosis (TB) Hospital has been facing a shortage of staff and resident doctors, the reply to a Right to Information (RTI) query has revealed.

According to information gathered through RTI from 2013 to 2018, 66 staff members including doctors at the Sewri TB Hospital have contracted the disease. This number has now drastically reduced due to effective infection control. The subsequent non-availability of doctors at the Sewri TB Hospital has forced the hospital’s administration to postpone a number of surgeries, stated a medico at the hospital.

Major surgeries have been pending since the past few months, as resident doctors are not joining the TB Hospital for fear of contracting TB. According to experts, fear of contracting the infection is the main reason why young doctors do not want to work at the TB Hospital.

Dr Lalit Kumar Anande, superintendent of the Sewri TB hospital, said, “The young doctors are under fear that they might become victims of TB so they do not want to work at the Sewri TB Hospital. Resident doctors are not ready to serve the one-year bond, either. Owing to this, a number of surgeries at the hospital have been pending since the past few months. No doctors are ready to serve the patients here at the Sewri TB hospital.”