LA HORE: Mayo Hospital, which has already been hit by a shortage of senior teaching faculty, is battling another issue: persistent dearth of senior registrars in almost all departments.

The scale of this dearth could be judged from the fact that out of a totalof119sancdonedpostsofsenior registrars, 43 have been lying vacant for many years, an official told Dawn.

He said a senior registrar played a pivotal role in patient management and ward administration in a teaching hospital.

The shortage of SRs in a large number at province`s oldest and biggest teaching institute -Mayo Hospital -raised eyebrows of the administration when it sought a record from the relevant section in the wake of deteriorating healthcare attheinsutute.

The ofñcialsaid the signiñcance of this particular category of seniordoctor increased manifold when the administration compared the patient load with the insufficient number of SRs.

Nearly 7,000 patients visit the 2,400-bed Mayo Hospital daily through accident and emergency and outdoor departments, he said.

The bed-occupancy ratio is also said to be alarmingly high at the institute as there is a normal complaint that the hospital is bearing heavy burden beyond its capacity, he said.

The situation is pathetic at many specialties that include anesthesia, chest surgery, paeds surgery, general surgery, paeds medicine and ENT.

According to hospital`s record, out of the 10 SR posts sancdoned for anesthesia department eight have been lying vacant for many years. Three posts of SRs out of five at ENT are also yet to be filled.

Seven out of 16 posts of SRs at paeds medicine, four out of five at paeds surgery and six out of 16 at general surgery have been lyingvacant since long.

There are two sanctioned posts of SR at the psychiatry department, two at chest surgery, one each at paeds preventive, child psychiatry and oral and maxillofacial surgery wards of the hospital and all are vacant, according to the hospital record.

The oncology department is considered most critical since it attends cancer patients and, unfortunately, all three SR posts of this unit are also lying vacant.

Another interesting aspect of the issue is that many posts are filled through ad hoc appointments.

Out of five sanctioned posts at the cardiology department, only one regular SR is working while rests are ad hoc doctors.

In three sanctioned posts of SR in the neurology department, one is vacant while the rest two are filled through ad hoc appointments.

Of the nine filled posts of SRs at the paediatric medicine, five are working on ad hoc basis.

There are total 16 sanctionedposts of SRs at the general medicine unit. Though all were filled, six of them were appointed on ad hoc basis.

Similarly, two out of three SRs are working on ad hoc basis at the cardiology department.

Almost similar is the case in some other specialties of the institute.

Some senior medics of the institute say that the government should increase the number of sanctioned posts of SRs in accordance with the patient load besides making appointment at vacant slots without any further delay.

Mayo Hospital chief executive Prof Dr Asad Aslam said the record of SR slots was sought from the administration department to resolve the issue.

The administration`s priority would be the appointment on vacant slots of SRs so as to provide immediate relief to patients.

He said the proposal to increase the number of slots would also be discussed in the coming meetings.