MUMBAI, January 17: Not only JJ hospital, the other three major public hospitals in the city too have been afflicted by a major brain drain with senior doctors preferring to switch to private hospitals and the authorities least concerned with reversing the trend.Medical sources say in the teaching hospitals - KEM, Sion, JJ and Nair - the exodus has affected patient care and teaching programmes, and with the government unable to provide incentives for senior surgeons and physicians, the trend is likely to continue.A senior professor at KEM Hospital says low salaries is a major reason for the allergy to public hospitals. ``What we make in a month is sometimes the same as what a private consultant makes in a couple of days,'' he points out. Coupled with the lack of facilities for patient care, it becomes difficult to justify continuing at these behemoths,'' he says.According to Dr Mahesh Chaudhari, who resigned from JJ Hospital while he was associate professor in the Department of Neurosurgery, thehospital lacked infrastructure for proper patient treatment and care. ``While in a private hospital it is possible to take up four to five cases in a single day, in JJ Hospital only one case of major surgery is possible in a day,'' he says. This is immensely frustrating for a surgeon who is interested in providing the best possible treatment to patients who come from all parts of state, since JJ Hospital is the only place which has a Neurosurgery Department, he points out.Often, the government's bureaucratic approach forces doctors to grapple with problems like shortage of staff and equipment and even medicines, he adds. Also, since treatment is changing fast in the world, the government should encourage doctors to attend conferences and seminars to update their knowledge, Dr Chaudhari explains.Apart from JJ Hospital, the number of doctors who have quit from KEM Hospital is equally alarming. Dr Sanjay Nagral resigned as a lecturer of surgery and joined Jaslok Hospital, where he recently performed afirst-of-its-kind liver transplant. Another surgeon, Dr S K Mathur, also was trained in liver transplant, but quit and joined Bombay Hospital.Sources say though these surgeons were interested in starting a liver transplant programme, they were thwarted by the hospital administration and resigned in frustration. In fact, it is precisely this attitude which forced the shifting of the zonal centre for the transplant programme from KEM Hospital to Sion Hospital, sources reveal.Others who have quit from KEM Hospital are Dr Bharat Dalvi, who was associate professor of cardiology and has now joined Jaslok Hospital; Dr Anil Karapurkar, who was professor of neurosurgery, who joined Apollo Hospital, New Delhi; and Dr R D Nagpal, also professor of neurosurgery, and who has joined Jaslok Hospital. Dr Pankaj Dhavan, who was a gastroenterologist at Nair Hospital has since joined a private hospital in the city.Apart from failing to provide facilities for better patient care, many doctors also allege harassment forrefusing to toe the line of the administration, doctors say. Moreover, the municipal corporation has still not implemented the Fifth Pay Commission recommendations though senior doctors have made several representations, they say. As a result, even teaching has suffered badly in recent years. Posts in the cadre of lecturers and associate professors have not been filled on the one hand, and on the other, doctors are not promoted unless they have the right connections in the government, according to a professor at Sion Hospital.
