Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences

Rajendra Hospital Patiala was named after the Maharaja Rajendra Singh (1856-1900) of erstwhile state. The foundation was laid down by Maharaja Yadvinder Singh on 15th April 1950. Government Medical College, Patiala was started on 29th September, 1953 at Patiala, the capital of erstwhile Pepsu State, at that time a separate State from Punjab, under the Government Of India President's rule .

This was the first Medical College in Pepsu State with a population of over 20 lacs. The Rajendra Hospital, Patiala, was under construction when the college started. The foundation stone of the college building was laid by Dr. Rajendra Parshad then President of India on 21.12.1953. The opening ceremony of Rajendra Hospital, Patiala was performed by the Prime Minister of India, Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru, in 1954. It started as a 500 bedded hospital and presently it houses 1009 bedded in Rajendra Hospital Patiala and 121 bedded in T.B.Hospital, Patiala.

The T.B.Hospital, Patiala has been designated as Zonal Task Force Centre of North India for involvement of Medical Colleges in RNTCP. The Hospital is also working as State T.B.Training and Demonstration Centre for the State of Punjab and U.T.

Apart from Basic/Clinical departments some super specialty departments are also functioning. Cardiology, Neurology, Nephrology, ICCU are functioning in Medicine Deptt. and Urology, Pediatrics, Surgery, Plastic Surgery, I.C.U are also functional. Psychiatry Deptt. of this Institution has been upgraded. In addition to it De-addiction Centre, ART Centre /EDUSET, Telemedicine, I.T.Cell are also functional. The college has 4 hostels for UGs and one hostel for PGs. It has beautiful auditorium, vast play grounds, swimming pool, and gymnasium and college canteen. The college has a separate library building with in the campus housing IT Cell. There is an ME Cell too.

The present college building was constructed in 1953 for the admission of 50 MBBS students whereas at present: - 150 M.B.B.S., 90 Post Graduate, 4 MSc.(Biochemistry, Anatomy) 50 Bsc. Nursing, 30 Post Basic Nursing, 10 Bsc. Medical (Anatomy, Physiology, Biochemistry), 40 D.M.L.T, 60 D-Pharmacy, 11 Radiographer Diploma students are being admitted in this Institution.

A special care neonatal unit, inaugurated with much fanfare last month by health minister Hemlal Murmu, is yet to start functioning as RIMS is facing an acute shortage of nurses, although the authorities of the state's premier hospital claim otherwise.RIMS director insisted the real reason why the unit was closed was because there were no patients, though nurses admitted there were too few of them to manage all the departments of the busy hospital.Set up by the state government in collaboration with Unicef, the neonatal unit is meant to provide care at birth, treat sick newborns, do follow-up on high-risk babies, provide referral services and train medical officers and nurses of districts in newborn care.

A visit to the unit today revealed it was locked while no one was around to provide information.

"So far, we have not found any patient who requires specialised treatment in the unit. The moment we receive such patients, the unit will be functional," claimed RIMS director Tulsi Mahto.Asked why the unit was locked, he said it was for the security of medical equipment, worth lakhs. "If the unit is kept open, someone may manhandle the expensive tools," he added.However, sources revealed that as many as 24 nurses were required to run the unit, where newborns suffering from serious ailments are to be admitted for intensive medical care. But the hospital did not have so many caring hands.

"At present, there are only 468 nurses at RIMS 376 appointed on contract basis while 92 are permanent. Thirty per cent of nurses are not available as they are on leave. The remaining strength is deputed shift-wise at various wards four intensive care units, operation theatres, trauma centre, and emergency wards besides cottages where VIPs are admitted. In such circumstances, it is difficult to spare 24 nurses exclusively for the Special Care Newborn Unit,where one attendant is required for one patient," a nurse revealed on condition of anonymity.

However, the head of the paediatrics department, A.K. Sharma, promised to start the unit soon, though he wouldn't give a deadline.According to sources, arrangements were being made to rope in 20 nurses 12 regular and eight senior nursing students to start the department by Monday, January 17.

There are 16 beds in the unit. Available equipment include pulse oximeters, photo therapy machine and radiant warmer, besides monitors, weighing machine, oxygen concentrator and infusion pump.Unicef has provided four doctors for providing Level II care which means all sorts of treatment for babies and children except mechanical ventilation and major surgical interventions.

A January 18 meeting attended by health minister Hemlal Murmu, health secretary A.K. Basu and South Chotanagpur commissioner Sheela Kisku Rapaz among others had directed the RIMS authorities to display lists of free medicines available for patients at different wards so that the poor could benefit.However, not a single display board could be spotted at any of the wards in the four-storey building and attendants were seen purchasing medicines from drug stores outside the hospital premises.

Krishnanand Mishra, who has come all the way from Rejo village in Garhwa's Meral block to see friend Heera Baitha in the ICU, corroborated the fact that there was no such list on display. "I had heard that there would be a board listing medicines available for free, but found none in the ICU or anywhere else. Forget medicines, I saw no doctor attending to my friend, while nurses were very rude," Mishra said, expressing concern over management at RIMS.A nurse at the surgical ward conceded that it was not practically possible to display names of all medicines and their availability status.

"There are only two nurses in this ward and a lot of work to be done. In such a situation, it is difficult for us to list more than 100 medicines," she said.Not willing to be named, she also added that listing free medicines might trigger a mad scramble and the quantity provided by the hospital administration was limited. "If we fail to provide to all patients, who are mostly poor, there will be ruckus," she said.

Director of RIMS Tulsi Mahto, however, played down the issue. He said lists of medicines would be put up soon. "We have started working in that direction after the governing body directive on January 18," he said.In the first phase, the RIMS management plans medicine display boards in all the four intensive care units. The same will gradually be done at all the 23 wards, Mahto added.The governing body had prodded display of lists after it came to know that the state-run premier health institute did not provide free medicines to the poor despite provision for the same.

Other decisions taken at the crucial meeting included outsourcing of catering services, appointment of an advocates' panel, provision for separate departments for TB, chest, psychiatry and paediatric surgery, upgrade of neurosurgery operating theatre and extension of contract of the existing security agency.PATNA, BIHAR: The suicide of a medico on Tuesday evening remains shrouded in mystery with the teen's father attributing his son's extreme step to ragging by seniors on his college campus while authorities denying it.

A first year student of Patna Medical College and Hospital, Sunny Kumar Roshan was a native of Saran district's Shivnagri village. His body was found hanging from the ceiling of his room in a private lodge at Maata Khudi Sah Lane in Patna where he lived as a tenant to pursue his studies.Roshan's father Kameshwar Ram, a banker with State Bank of India, alleged his son often complained to him about ragging. "Once he told me over phone that his seniors had been asking for Rs 1,200 as donation for Saraswati Puja. I had sent him the money," a wailing Ram told TOI over phone from his village where he was performing his son's last rites on Thursday.

Roshan, he said, was so scared of his seniors that he would often bunk off his classes. On the fateful evening, he gave the puja donation to his seniors. On return to his lodge, he went straight to his room and bolted the door from inside, Ram said.Police said they were approached by Roshan's friends in the lodge when Roshan did not open the door till late Wednesday morning. Police broke open the door and recovered the body.Patna Medical College (PMC) principal Dr N P Yadav, however, denied that it was a case of ragging. "Roshan was living in a lodge and no one knows what happened there and how," he said.

PMC has an anti-ragging squad to look into such complaints. Squad member Dr Rajiv Ranjan Prasad said neither Roshan nor his parents ever lodged any complaint with the college authorities.PMC's anatomy department head Dr Khursheed Alam said Roshan was weak in his studies and fetched poor marks in different papers."It prima facie doesn't appear to be a case of ragging," Patna SSP Bachchu Singh Meena told TOI on his return from PMC. He said though most of the students have left for their homes after the first year exams, he talked to at least 12 classmates of Roshan. None of them complained about any incident of ragging, the SSP said.

"If the boy's parents have such a complaint, police would assist them in every possible way," Meena said and added while the boy has not left behind a suicide note, his father has lodged a case of unnatural death in the Sultanganj police station.Jamshedpur, Nov. 1: With dengue stalking the steel city like never before, Mahatma Gandhi Memorial (MGM) Medical College and Hospital has planned to set up a special cell equipped with lab and telemedicine facilities to deal with the killer disease as well as cases of cerebral malaria.

S.S. Prasad, the superintendent of the government hospital, revealed that a team of three doctors would undergo a special training on vector-borne diseases, to be conducted by the Union health ministry in New Delhi in phases from mid-December, for the purpose.Prasad, who is also the head of pathology at MGM, said the doctors would be selected from the departments of medicine, microbiology and paediatrics very soon."The special training will be given under the National Vector-borne Disease Control Programme. The team will learn how to control spread of diseases," he said, adding that the focus would be on dengue.

The disease has taken almost epidemic proportions in this part of the state, prompting the central training invite to the state health department.In 2005, only three cases of dengue were reported from the steel city and the disease remained confined to Jugsalai. The following years, too, saw few number of dengue victims. This year, however, the disease has already claimed three lives, including that of a doctor.

As many as 384 cases of suspected dengue have been reported from various parts of the city and its adjoining areas in the past two months. The victims were admitted to different hospitals and private nursing homes, from where many were also released after treatment.The MGM superintendent said once the doctors returned from training, the separate cell for dengue and malaria would be set up. "The cell will be headed by one of the three doctors, and be equipped with adequate number of nurses, ward boys, a lab and a telemedicine centre."

The state health department is also believed to have asked Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS), Ranchi, and Patliputra Medical College and Hospital (PMCH), Dhanbad, to recommend doctors for the training.However, Dhanbad civil surgeon Kameshwar Prasad and RIMS director A.K. Mahto said they hadn't yet received any such communication from the health department.

Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) may be gearing up to earn a super-speciality medical centre tag, but even the most basic infrastructure like elevators are lying defunct in the hospital that caters to roughly 3,000 patients daily.Eight of the 11 elevators at the premier hospital don't work, forcing patients, doctors, nurses, medical students and attendants to scramble for place in the remaining three.While elevator no. 1 near the director's chamber is almost exclusively used by medical students, numbers 7 and 8 are open to all.

And the strain on the two working elevators is showing. On Thursday afternoon, a visitor from Simdega and another from Gumla got stuck in the lift while heading down from the fourth floor maternity ward. A security guard rushed to help, but could do little else than console the two as the elevator attendant was missing. The attendant could be traced only after 15 minutes and the elevator restarted."I had heard about these problems in RIMS, and today I experienced it. Next time, I will take the stairs," said Laxmi Devi, who had come to visit her sister admitted in the hospital.

Just minutes before the lift got stuck, Latehar resident Raj Kumar had walked out of it, unable to go to the fourth floor, as the number indicating the floor had disappeared from the panel with repeated use.According to a security guard at the hospital, the elevators have been lying defunct for months. "Except elevator number 2, which stopped working last month, the rest have been out of order for at least six months," he said.

He alleged that the problems started after the annual maintenance contract for the elevators expired in April.RIMS superintendent M.K. Rai admitted the problem and said Jharkhand State Electricity Board (JSEB), which is supposed to maintain the elevators, has been informed. He added that the elevators would start working soon, though he refused to give a timeframe.When contacted, JSEB executive engineer S. Minz said maintenance work was going on and would be completed soon. However, another visit to the hospital showed no work was being carried out on any of the defunct machines.

Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences Degree Programs :

Medicine

Dentistry

Nursing

Physiotherapy