Editorial:- “*Ailing Healthcare: When Doctors are Overworked and Patients Left Waiting*”

“Ailing Healthcare: When Doctors are Overworked and Patients Left Waiting”

“How Misplaced Priorities and Systemic Failures are Crippling India’s Healthcare System”

The State of Healthcare: Overburdened Doctors and Misplaced Priorities

Healthcare, education, women’s safety, unemployment, and infrastructure should be the top priorities of any government. However, the current trend of freebie politics, such as offering free electricity, free travel, and free rations, has overshadowed these critical areas. While such schemes might appear beneficial, they indirectly discourage people from working and foster dependency. Meanwhile, the real issues—like the crippling state of healthcare in facilities such as Palampur Civil Hospital—remain unaddressed, affecting both patients and doctors.

Palampur Civil Hospital is a glaring example of how overburdened healthcare professionals are being pushed to their limits. Every day, a massive number of patients flood the hospital’s OPD (Outpatient Department). For instance, if 100 patients visit a single doctor in a day and the doctor spends even five minutes on each patient, that adds up to 500 minutes—over 8 hours of nonstop work without breaks. In many cases, the number of patients exceeds 120, making it humanly impossible for doctors to cater to everyone effectively.

The result is twofold. On one hand, patients—some of whom travel for hours to receive treatment—are forced to wait in long queues, often for several hours. On the other hand, doctors are left mentally and physically exhausted, unable to provide the level of care they aspire to. For those doctors who lack extraordinary resilience, such working conditions can lead to burnout, frustration, and even a sense of helplessness.

This crisis is not the fault of doctors but a systemic failure fueled by the lack of sufficient medical staff and poor planning. Despite the staggering patient load, the government has not taken adequate steps to increase the number of doctors or improve the working conditions of those already serving. Instead, healthcare professionals often become scapegoats. A minor delay, an unintentional error, or a simple oversight can lead to widespread criticism, sometimes even violence against doctors, while the root causes remain unaddressed.

Patients, too, suffer in this broken system. Those traveling from remote areas often face hours of waiting, only to be rushed through consultations due to the overwhelming pressure on doctors. In such a scenario, both patients and doctors become victims of an inefficient healthcare system.

One solution to alleviate this crisis is setting a realistic limit on the number of patients a doctor can see in a day—perhaps 30 to 40. However, implementing this requires recruiting more doctors and providing better infrastructure, which demands a shift in governmental priorities. The focus needs to move from distributing freebies to investing in fundamental necessities like healthcare, education, and infrastructure.

The issue of overburdened doctors in Palampur Civil Hospital is not an isolated one; it reflects a nationwide crisis. Until governments prioritize long-term systemic improvements over short-term political gains, the healthcare system will continue to struggle, leaving both patients and doctors in distress. It is time for citizens to demand accountability from policymakers and push for meaningful reforms in healthcare, rather than settling for superficial schemes that fail to address the root causes of these challenges.