Singrauli (Madhya Pradesh): The Singrauli district hospital is grasping for breath because the administration barely pays any heed to the hobbling health services provided to the patients there.

Most of the health employees allegedly remain absent from duty. Although the doctors are supposed to be present at OPD at 9am, they reportedly come to the hospital at 11am. After reaching the hospital, the doctors visit every ward to see the patients.

According to sources, they sometimes go to their clinics soon after visiting the wards. As a result, the patients coming from far-flung areas of the district return home empty-handed after waiting for doctors for hours.

There is hardly any system to check the attendance of the doctors and other medical staff. This is the reason that patients are suffering. The patients are often advised to reach the clinics run by the doctors, sources said, adding that the authorities simply keep mum over the complaints made to them.

When the issue was put up before chief medical and health officer NK Jain, he said monitoring the doctors’ attendance was beyond his jurisdiction. The civil surgeon has been assigned with the job of keeping a tab on the attendance of the doctors, he said.

Jain further said the complaints about it should be sent to the collector. Closing a clinic is outside his jurisdiction, and it would be better to talk to the collector about the issue, he said.