Tarun Karthick
Port Blair, 03 July 2024
A disturbing incident at PHC Campbell Bay has raised serious concerns about medical negligence. According to Mr. T. Shiva Raj, a ward member of Campbell Bay Panchayat, a three-year-old child with a foreign object stuck in his nose was left unattended by a doctor for over five hours.
The child was rushed to PHC Campbell Bay by his parents at 6:00 AM after they noticed the foreign object. The staff nurse on duty promptly informed the doctor about the emergency. However, the doctor reportedly did not arrive until around 10:00 AM and began attending to other patients in the outpatient department (OPD).
It wasn’t until 11:30 AM, after the parents confronted the doctor, that she finally attended to the child. By this time, the foreign object had penetrated deeper into the nose, making it difficult for the doctor to extract it successfully.
The Medical Officer In-Charge of PHC Campbell Bay was unavailable as she was attending a medical camp with defence authorities. The situation prompted a call for assistance from doctors at INS Baaz and the Army, who were able to successfully remove the foreign object from the child’s nose.
Mr. Shiva Raj emphasised the need for the Directorate of Health Services to take immediate action to ensure healthcare professionals in remote areas perform their duties efficiently. He suggested the installation of Aadhaar-based biometric attendance systems and centrally monitored CCTV cameras in PHCs on remote islands to improve punctuality and accountability. Additionally, he recommended deploying more doctors and staff to alleviate the workload in overburdened healthcare systems.
It’s important to note that the doctor who attended to the child after a five-hour delay had been working late the previous night on another case. Despite this, the incident has sparked a call for better management and infrastructure to prevent such delays in the future.