MANJOT KOHLI
Chandigarh, July 18
To cope with the increasing workload, the Department of Nephrology of the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) urgently requires more staff members.
With the clinical load seeing over 30 per cent growth in the last three years and an increasing need for specialised research facilities, the department has time and again been emphasising the need for additional faculty members. Specifically, the department is seeking five assistant professors — three for nephrology clinical and two for nephrology-basic sciences.
With a staggering 36 functional hemodialysis machines available at any given time, the department currently performs over 1,000 hemodialysis every month.
The rise in the number of hemodialysis performed annually soared from 4,948 in 2010-11 to 19,724 in 2019-20. It points to the growing demand for dialysis services in the region.
Moreover, the department has witnessed a significant increase of 40 per cent in the number of peritoneal dialysis patients over the last five years. The number of renal transplants being done at the PGI increased from 168 in 2010-11 to 222 in 2019-20.
The number of DM trainees has gone up from 11 in 2008 to 15 currently. The department has already requested for an increase in the strength of sanctioned DM residents in open category from 11 to 16. The department had given a proposal for the creation of additional faculty posts in the standing academic committee meeting recently. The department has plans to establish a standalone hemodialysis facility and wants to project itself as a model dialysis unit. In view of continuous evolution and specialisation of dialysis care, the department needs separate faculty to develop and take care of dialysis services.
